a season of stillness

As I said in my previous post, I am back at VT for my last semester. I can't believe three years has come and gone already and I am absolutely astounded at what God has done. This semester, however, feels very different than other semesters because I'm about half as busy. I've been so used to go go go with leading two discipleships, in my own discipleship, leading a Bible study, in my own Bible study, leading the Bridges team for Cru, and oh right, classes too. This semester? I'm not leading a Bible study, only leading one discipleship, my discipleship meets only every other week, and my classes aren't nearly as difficult...what happened to the busyness and why does my schedule have to be so open all of a sudden? I've been trying to find a routine, which I typically can only find through a busy schedule, but to no avail. I let it go and trusted that God had a reason for all the lack of busyness.

Well, last week I found out I need ankle reconstruction surgery. That explains why I need all the spare time. Long story short, I have chronic ankle instability and so basically my ligaments and cartilage are so overstretched/torn that they have lost their function. My ankle can bend in ways it shouldn't be able to. My orthopedic sent me to physical therapy all last summer, but it didn't work and the pain has gotten worse and worse throughout the year. So, if I want to be walking and without arthritis in two years, then the surgery needs to be done. I'm seeing an orthopedic surgeon here in Blacksburg on Sept 12th to find out more details about when surgery is going to be and what exactly it will entail. From what I've been told so far, I'll be in a non-weightbearing cast (aka crutches) for 6 weeks and then start physical therapy; 6 months is expected for full recovery. I'm hoping to get it done within the month so that recovery won't spill over into the softball season.

With surgery, as I learned from shoulder surgery freshman year, comes a season of stillness. I won't be able to do too much except listen to what God is telling me. In fact, it was during my shoulder surgery recovery that I began hearing God's calling to the mission field. God does crazy things when you're still enough to listen. So while I strongly dislike recovering from surgeries, I know that God has His purposes for making me still. I had a season of pruning and busyness during the summer, now it's time for the season of stillness. Now I just have to wait...