By Kevin M. Kraft
“You know, Lord,” I said during a casual chat with God. “I really hope I don’t develop some chronic physical condition that leaves me in constant pain or inhibits my ability to move freely.”
The next day I pulled a muscle in my hip, or so I thought. I was exercising as usual, performing leg lifts, a holdout exercise from my high school football days – great for developing strong abdominal muscles – when I felt the pull. I thought no problem, as I had felt similar things before. Eventually it’ll go away and I’ll be as good as new.
But it didn’t go away. In fact, treating it like a minor muscle pull exacerbated it.
One day when I got up, I suddenly found myself on the floor bracing against walls and gripped in the absolute worst pain I could have ever imagined possible. I had developed a severe case of sciatica: inflammation of the sciatic nerve. In my case, a bulging vertebrae clamping down on the nerve and debilitating the lower left side of my body from my hip down through my feet caused it.
The pain at its worst was like lightning blasting through my leg, only slightly less severe – no, that wasn’t true, it was just different – It felt more like my left foot was immersed in lava. My body bent over and twisted, as it compensated for the injury. I, a physically fit man in my forties, became debilitated. Welcome to Sciatica.
My first reaction, other than “AUGH!” was not to rally against God or curse Him for allowing this challenge in my life. Nor did I simply wait for God to reveal some big truth to me during this dark journey. In the midst of my Sciatica affliction, I was interested in what God wanted me to learn, do or discern.
When the worst of the initial pain subsided, I found myself disabled. I was unable to sit, stand or lie down (even to sleep) for extended periods of time. I was hard-pressed to find any relief. During my stay at home on medical leave I found myself useless, sleepless and lame. The simplest tasks were impossible for me.
During my recovery I saw firsthand what my wife, a stay-at-home mom, did to manage our home and four children. Adding to her numerous tasks, was carting me to medical professionals, setting appointments and securing the many pharmaceuticals prescribed for my recovery.
She also looked after my personal care, assisted me in exercising what muscles I could to prevent atrophy and she never once uttered a complaint. I was amazed. I couldn’t have done what she did. With all the added responsibilities, the tiring and stressful workload, she somehow managed it all faithfully with pure devotion and love.
Her life inspired me.
And, she inspired my kids as well. Each of my four kids took up the slack, doing more than what was required of them, especially my two eldest. I was proud of them all!
I was humbled by their service of love.
In fact, during my recovery I was humbled many times as I fought to bring my rebellious body back under my command. Whereas, I never doubted my ability to take care of myself, I now felt vulnerable, off-balanced and unsafe. It was hard to have always been in top shape and suddenly find myself in a body like that of an old man. I had to trust in God, my wife and the kids.
In all her wisdom, my wife reminded me during the slow and agonizing journey back from Sciatica that my strength and safety comes from the Lord alone.
As I write this, four months after landing in Sciatica, I’m about at 75% capacity. My back is largely straight, thank God, yet I still work to regain the strength I had before. Pain still besets me enough to warrant a case, but I’m managing a greatly reduced number of pain medications. Things improved to the point where I’ve returned to work.
I was the recipient of several other wonderful changes along with my improved health. Circumstances allowed me to work the night shift, giving me the opportunity to be with my family during the bulk of their waking hours. And, I feel wonderful after having my family walk together through the crisis. I am a blessed man to have such a precious family.
Today, my family not only blesses me, but I also learned to appreciate them for who they are – A valuable lesson from God. You can imagine that I’m now even more active in communicating to my wife just how much I love and appreciate everything she is and what she does for me and the kids. Bless you, Sharon, and thank you for your love and faithfulness to me!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Story
I recently attended a conference called Story. It wasn’t just about every story having a beginning, middle and end. It was about how to communicate our experiences in ways that help others understand and possibly feel what we’ve encountered. Stories help us to understand life.
Anon, a Siberian Elder once said, “If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest. If you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.”
Author Ursula K. Leguin put it another way, “There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”
When God’s son showed up on our planet He had the power to heal and raise people from the dead. However, one thing He seemed to do more than anything else was tell stories or parables. He could have just stated the facts or pointed out the six easy steps to doing whatever, but instead He chose to relate to those around Him through the sharing of stories.
Today, we continue to share stories in books, on television and in movie theaters. Many of those stories have touched lives and cultures in many ways. Modern day stories shown on the silver screen have popularized clothing lines, catch phrases and worldviews or philosophies of life. In fact, it’s my opinion that stories mold a generation.
With story being so important, I understand why God had a Christian invent television, creating the very rules that didn’t allow for words like water closet to be used on air. It also made sense to me why God positioned the church to police the motion picture industry with the Hays Motion Picture Code for decades. During that time period films wouldn’t make it into the theaters unless the Christian film office gave its approval on the film’s content. No wonder that era was considered the golden age of movies.
What I have difficulty understanding is why the church pulled out of television and walked away from the job of policing movies before they could be released. The moment the Christians pulled out, the number of R-rated films skyrocketed. Profanity also moved into television and got worse every decade. The church had given its story telling media to the secular industry.
Today there is a grassroots movement to bring story back into our lives in the form of wholesome and moral entertainment. But more importantly, preachers and fathers are moving back to sharing stories that reveal who God is and how we are to live with Him. Many of the stories tell of His mighty works in our simple lives and how much He loves us.
It’s my hope that we will all learn how to share stories of our lives with others, in hopes of each listener being able to understand and feel how good life can be with God at the center of it. Do you have a story that is itching to be told? I suggest you share it with those around you and watch how it impacts their lives. It is a priceless value worth sharing.
Anon, a Siberian Elder once said, “If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest. If you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.”
Author Ursula K. Leguin put it another way, “There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”
When God’s son showed up on our planet He had the power to heal and raise people from the dead. However, one thing He seemed to do more than anything else was tell stories or parables. He could have just stated the facts or pointed out the six easy steps to doing whatever, but instead He chose to relate to those around Him through the sharing of stories.
Today, we continue to share stories in books, on television and in movie theaters. Many of those stories have touched lives and cultures in many ways. Modern day stories shown on the silver screen have popularized clothing lines, catch phrases and worldviews or philosophies of life. In fact, it’s my opinion that stories mold a generation.
With story being so important, I understand why God had a Christian invent television, creating the very rules that didn’t allow for words like water closet to be used on air. It also made sense to me why God positioned the church to police the motion picture industry with the Hays Motion Picture Code for decades. During that time period films wouldn’t make it into the theaters unless the Christian film office gave its approval on the film’s content. No wonder that era was considered the golden age of movies.
What I have difficulty understanding is why the church pulled out of television and walked away from the job of policing movies before they could be released. The moment the Christians pulled out, the number of R-rated films skyrocketed. Profanity also moved into television and got worse every decade. The church had given its story telling media to the secular industry.
Today there is a grassroots movement to bring story back into our lives in the form of wholesome and moral entertainment. But more importantly, preachers and fathers are moving back to sharing stories that reveal who God is and how we are to live with Him. Many of the stories tell of His mighty works in our simple lives and how much He loves us.
It’s my hope that we will all learn how to share stories of our lives with others, in hopes of each listener being able to understand and feel how good life can be with God at the center of it. Do you have a story that is itching to be told? I suggest you share it with those around you and watch how it impacts their lives. It is a priceless value worth sharing.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Failure to Fail
I debated about entering the 168 Write of Passage screenplay competition recently. It was a difficult choice since I felt like my reputation would be at risk. Over the past year I’ve been a screenwriting columnist, sharing proven techniques for filmmakers and writers to improve their craft, resulting in me being perceived as an expert of sorts.
While there was a good basis for this perception, I felt like some put me on a pedestal. In some people’s minds I could do no wrong in the area of story and was therefore set up for a fall – especially since story is subjective. Needles to say, I swallowed hard and entered the competition.
It didn’t take long before I received my rejection notice. I hadn’t even made it off of the ground. While I’m not sure how many levels of competition there was, it was clear that I didn’t make it out of the gate. The one point of solace for me was that I received excellence in the categories of my story premise or high concept, and scriptural integrity. All the rest of the categories received a marking of fair.
During my morning devotional, I read about Cain and Abel bringing their gifts to the Lord. Cain presented a fair gift, while Abel gave the best he had. Abel had raised excellent livestock and chose from the fold his very best as a gift offering to God.
Given my circumstances, the one thing I couldn’t help but notice was that both men made an attempt by giving a gift. I wondered what would have happened if one of them chose not to do anything. I further speculated on what would have happened to all around them if one decided to live with apathy at the core of their Christian life.
While I was not able to pull off something spectacular or award winning during the seven-day competition, I at least took the risk of failing. This resulted in me meeting new friends, improving my techniques and diving into more research for additional improvements – an ongoing process in filmmaking.
However, I took pause to consider what would have happened if I chose not to enter.
I currently have a story being considered for the silver screen, as a direct result from having entered the competition. And, I can tell you that I’d rather sign a contract for a screenplay than win a trophy. Apathy would have gotten me nowhere, but it would have protected my pride and my position. Thank God I was willing to take the risk of failing.
Now, it is possible that I won’t get a contract, and I’m sure the competition is fierce, but had I not done anything…
When I was raising my kids, I told them to each find some activity they could be involved in that they were really bad at. I wanted them to find a skill that they could fail at miserably. While their faces were perplexed, they soon learned that it wasn’t so bad to fail. In fact, they found it freeing. They also found that when the pressure of success was taken off, they could actually improve and get better. Although, they found that the better they got, the more pressure would be put on them by others. It didn’t take long to realize that not taking the risk was the only kind of failure they couldn’t live with.
I once heard Dr. Henry Cloud tell single men that the only reason they haven’t found the right woman was because they hadn’t failed enough. He recommended that the moment his talk ended, they should go out a meet a minimum of five women and see how many rejections they could obtain.
Michael Jordan understood the logic behind failure. His career points scored were amazing, but more amazing was how many attempts he made, or should I say how many times he failed to make the shot. What’s interesting is that no one remembers the misses, as they’re too busy talking about the successes.
When you think of Walt Disney, you can’t help but think of the incredible creativity and global success he had. Few people reflect on his seven near bankruptcies. Thomas Edison learned that there were 999 ways not to invent the light bulb before he invented it. The makers of 409 cleaner learned that there were 408 formulas that didn’t get the job done.
I’m convinced that the only failure comes from the choice to do nothing. So if you bump into me this week, you’ll probably find me working at failing. And when those success stories come, I will rejoice all the more in how God used my small steps of faith to do marvelous things for His kingdom. The reward of pleasing God and helping others far outweighs the risk of failure.
While there was a good basis for this perception, I felt like some put me on a pedestal. In some people’s minds I could do no wrong in the area of story and was therefore set up for a fall – especially since story is subjective. Needles to say, I swallowed hard and entered the competition.
It didn’t take long before I received my rejection notice. I hadn’t even made it off of the ground. While I’m not sure how many levels of competition there was, it was clear that I didn’t make it out of the gate. The one point of solace for me was that I received excellence in the categories of my story premise or high concept, and scriptural integrity. All the rest of the categories received a marking of fair.
During my morning devotional, I read about Cain and Abel bringing their gifts to the Lord. Cain presented a fair gift, while Abel gave the best he had. Abel had raised excellent livestock and chose from the fold his very best as a gift offering to God.
Given my circumstances, the one thing I couldn’t help but notice was that both men made an attempt by giving a gift. I wondered what would have happened if one of them chose not to do anything. I further speculated on what would have happened to all around them if one decided to live with apathy at the core of their Christian life.
While I was not able to pull off something spectacular or award winning during the seven-day competition, I at least took the risk of failing. This resulted in me meeting new friends, improving my techniques and diving into more research for additional improvements – an ongoing process in filmmaking.
However, I took pause to consider what would have happened if I chose not to enter.
I currently have a story being considered for the silver screen, as a direct result from having entered the competition. And, I can tell you that I’d rather sign a contract for a screenplay than win a trophy. Apathy would have gotten me nowhere, but it would have protected my pride and my position. Thank God I was willing to take the risk of failing.
Now, it is possible that I won’t get a contract, and I’m sure the competition is fierce, but had I not done anything…
When I was raising my kids, I told them to each find some activity they could be involved in that they were really bad at. I wanted them to find a skill that they could fail at miserably. While their faces were perplexed, they soon learned that it wasn’t so bad to fail. In fact, they found it freeing. They also found that when the pressure of success was taken off, they could actually improve and get better. Although, they found that the better they got, the more pressure would be put on them by others. It didn’t take long to realize that not taking the risk was the only kind of failure they couldn’t live with.
I once heard Dr. Henry Cloud tell single men that the only reason they haven’t found the right woman was because they hadn’t failed enough. He recommended that the moment his talk ended, they should go out a meet a minimum of five women and see how many rejections they could obtain.
Michael Jordan understood the logic behind failure. His career points scored were amazing, but more amazing was how many attempts he made, or should I say how many times he failed to make the shot. What’s interesting is that no one remembers the misses, as they’re too busy talking about the successes.
When you think of Walt Disney, you can’t help but think of the incredible creativity and global success he had. Few people reflect on his seven near bankruptcies. Thomas Edison learned that there were 999 ways not to invent the light bulb before he invented it. The makers of 409 cleaner learned that there were 408 formulas that didn’t get the job done.
I’m convinced that the only failure comes from the choice to do nothing. So if you bump into me this week, you’ll probably find me working at failing. And when those success stories come, I will rejoice all the more in how God used my small steps of faith to do marvelous things for His kingdom. The reward of pleasing God and helping others far outweighs the risk of failure.
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