Meniscus Musings

I’ve been out of commission for a month now, nursing a meniscus tear. In the beginning, I wondered if there was a purpose behind this injury.

Could God be telling me to rest?

Could God be redirecting me, because I was spending too much time on volleyball instead of Him?

Could God be teaching me a lesson, because maybe I signed up for a volleyball team for my own glory?

But these questions didn’t make sense to me. I just recovered from a sprained ankle, so I did plenty of resting during that time. I built relationships with my volleyball teammates, and found genuine joy in playing. All of these were good fruits- would God purposefully take it away, due to some unknown negligence on my end?

Whenever someone gets sick or injured, the most common Christian response I hear is “Maybe God is teaching you something,” or “God wants you to rest.” When someone says this, it gives off the connotation that you’ve been doing something that is inconsistent with God’s plans for your life, so now you’re learning a lesson through a forced circumstance.

Though I do agree with the statement that sickness/injury can give us the opportunity to have productive reflection and the leisure of rest, I’m not sure that I believe God’s hand is directly involved in our compromised health.

After getting injured and having friends’ loved ones go through severe illnesses, the idea that God directly afflicts us with common sickness or injury to simply teach us a lesson doesn’t feel accurate. Sure, there’s accounts of people being afflicted with sicknesses due to outright disobedience, rebellion, or blasphemy in the Old Testament, but not only does the accounts dwindle in the New Testament, we also see injuries and sicknesses being met with Jesus’ ministry of healing. And that’s where the script flips: injury is no longer just a consequential punishment of sin, but is presented as an opportunity of Jesus’ power and love.

John 9 is a great example of this: “As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

Then, Jesus heals the blind man. The working theology was that the man was blind as a punishment of sin, but Jesus overhauls this thinking by saying this injury is a redemptive opportunity for God’s glory to be shown.

Injury was once seen as a situation of punishment, ladden with guilt and shame, but now was be the birthplace of a miracle and testimony of God’s glory. Furthermore, we see Jesus’ love through these healings. Jesus cried over Lazarus’ death. Jesus saw the shame of the bleeding woman, healed her, and called her “daughter.” Jesus shows deep relationship and care within injury and sickness, rather than anger and detachment.

What I am challenging today is how we over-spiritualize sicknesses and injuries to be an indication of God’s punishment, and suggest that we open the realm to another possibilities.

Here are two suggested applications:

1. If someone around you is dealing with sickness or injury, don’t be like Job’s friends and try to jump to spiritual rationalizations.

Job’s friends tried to rationalize Job’s suffering by assuming Job did something wrong. It’s our inclination to point fingers and say, “You deserved it,” because it fits in our legalistic worldview of right vs. wrong. It implies that the afflicted should self-examine to figure out where they have sinned, and harbor guilt and shame for the wrongdoing. This response erroneously feeds a merit-based theology, or a punishment-based God, rather than positioning God as a relational God who steps into our pain and suffering as a companion. It could be that God will reveal His healing powers in this person, like He did for the blind man! Be a friend, sit with them in their grief, and pray for healing in faith.

2. And if there isn’t healing, we should understand and accept our limitedness as human beings.

Unfortunately, not all sicknesses or injuries will be healed. But whether or not you are healed, is not a measure of your relational closeness/relational standing with God. Healings are purely a grace from God, and has no weight or bearing in demonstrating if or how much He loves you. There’s many people that I know God loves that haven’t been healed, including myself!

As human beings, we are subject to fragility and the natural decay of our bodies. That’s something that God may allow to run its course. Rest assured that God’s love for us is true and constant, and whatever happens to us in this life, is not a direct sign or measure of His love for us.

I’ve already made my peace with this injury. It was random and a natural byproduct of wear and tear. I don’t need to try to find a grander purpose behind this injury, but I can use this recovery time well to take things easy and give myself a break. I can take time to read, write, and stay indoors to avoid the hot summer heat.