Road to Recovery

In the 34th Psalm, we find encouragement to look to the Lord when we are facing trials in our lives;
when we suffer, He desires for us to come to Him. We can read:
3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.

The sequence is apparent here - verse 3 can inspire us to seek to glorify the Lord; we should be living a life of exaltation of Christ and expectation of His presence and faithfulness to His promises.  Knowing His love and truth, we can seek Him to set us free from our fears.  Our inward, deep-seated trust in the Lord can be manifested in our outward confidence and peace.  We look to Him in the midst of our troubles and can make sure that we are crying out to Him in our suffering.

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God loves us so much, and He desires to show Himself faithful as we call upon Him; this strengthens
our own faith and the faith of those who pray with and for us. James 5 encourages us:
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Auburn fans are continuing to celebrate the first-ever Final Four appearance, as the Tigers defeated SEC nemesis Kentucky 77-71 in Kansas City yesterday afternoon.  Auburn went into halftime trailing by five,  But, as Yahoo! Sports reported, the Tigers got a huge boost when they learned that their fallen star Chuma Okeke, who tore his ACL in Friday's victory over North Carolina, would be attending the game.  The story says:

The lift from Okeke started before he got near the bench. The Tigers flipped what was a 35-30 Kentucky lead into a 42-39 advantage in the four minutes between finding out he was going to be at the game until he got to the bench.

The article also referenced a tweet from Birmingham television reporter Simone Eli, who wrote, "AUBURN IS FINAL FOUR BOUND! Team and coaches pray with Chuma Okeke in the middle of the circle!"

The injury occurred with just over eight minutes left in the North Carolina game. The Montgomery Advertiser reported...

...Chuma Okeke went down underneath the basket after his left leg buckled underneath him.

The sophomore power forward immediately grabbed his leg with one hand and slammed the other into the floor, shouting in pain and frustration. Three athletic trainers and a doctor rushed onto the floor to tend to him, along with Bruce Pearl. His teammates gathered around him in prayer. Members of the Tar Heels jogged over to offer words of encouragement as he was helped off the floor.

Okeke will reportedly have surgery tomorrow, with legendary doctor James Andrews.  The Advertiser quotes Auburn star Bryce Brown, who said, “I just hated to see my brother go down," adding that he had "...seen how much pain he was in. It didn’t only hurt me; it hurt the whole team. You could see it on all of our faces. We got in here after the game and prayed twice, just because God is the only person that’s going to be able to fix those problems with Chuma.”

The rallying cry for the victorious Tigers has become "Do it for Chuma."  Auburn goes on to face Virginia in the Final Four on Saturday, with a chance to play for the national championship against the winner of Michigan State and Texas Tech on Monday night.

There was some recent news I came across recently about another player, a football player, who suffered a devastating injury in the 2018 college season.  You may remember that Saturday last fall; the Auburn game was scheduled to be on the SEC Network, but there was a weather delay.  If you were not a Jordan-Hare, but watching television, waiting for the game to begin, you got to see the game that was running on the network's "Alternative" channel.  Tennessee State was playing Vanderbilt, and it was a surprisingly close game.

But, there was a moment where one particular player, Christion Abercrombie, collapsed on the field.  A ChristianHeadlines.com story details what has transpired since that terrifying moment that afternoon:

According to WSB-TV 2, Abercrombie – a former middle linebacker for Tennessee State University – collapsed during a game against Vanderbilt, from what he thought was an excruciating headache.

The student-athlete was rushed to the hospital where doctors determined that he had suffered several strokes and was suffering from a severe brain injury. CBN News reports that doctors did not expect him to make it through the night.

Upon hearing this news, athletes from both TSU and Vanderbilt decided to huddle together at the 50-yard-line and pray for their teammate and friend.

Christion's parents were by his son's side all that night...and praying.  Now, according to the article:

Months later, Abercrombie is alive and well. His life, he says is a testament to God’s love.

“Believe in God because without him nothing is possible. He made everything happen for me," Abercrombie said. "I thank God for that every day."

He was at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for rehab, according to WSB, and is continuing to undergo therapy.  He's also back at TSU studying sports medicine.

I think there are some tangible lessons we can ponder from these sporting instances.  First, we can remember to respond with prayer when faced with adversity.  These teammates and even opponents have demonstrated a quick and emotional response to seeing their fellow warriors go down.  When trouble comes, we can be motivated to call upon the Lord.

And when we pray, we can pray with expectancy.  Christion's mom mentioned that she had done just that.  Prayer for the Christian is more than a ritual, it can be a Spirit-infused practice in which we make connection with Almighty God and experience His power.  And, that power can inspire the recipient of prayers.  I think of the incredible prayer effort on behalf of Joni Eareckson Tada, who has been fighting a brave fight with cancer and she was hospitalized last week.  A health update on her Facebook page included a reference to James 5:16.  She was quoted on the Facts and Trends website in February:

Obviously people are praying, and my husband has been great in taking care of me. We’re just being infused with extra measures of grace because people are praying.

From my many years of living with chronic pain, or quadriplegia, or my former cancer, I’ve learned a lot about faith and knowing when people are praying for me.

When we see God bring us through adversity, we can be careful to give God the glory.  When we see Him at work, we can be deliberate to tell His story.  And, we can continue to ask for fellow believers to pray for us in time of trouble.  We are called to pray for one another; we can see our faithful God at work.