Luke’s Notebook

Therefore the LORD Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

Pretty amazing. When you look back at how Jesus was born, it is amazing at how unimpressive His birth was. The son of a carpenter? In a small town of Bethlehem? In a stable? Even realizing that Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, were just people — it really brings it down to earth. I’m sure they were scared, were excited, were nervous. They didn’t know the story. They hadn’t read through the gospels before to see what was supposed to happen. They just lived it, and it was probably very similar to any other couple expecting a baby. Yet, at that moment, God became a man and in the form of a newborn!

It’s really strange to think of Jesus as a baby or as a toddler, maybe learning to walk or saying His first words. But everything was so real! He was real enough that people questioned whether He was really the Messiah. If He was glowing and hovering around the place, people probably would have known something was different. But He was a carpenter. How much more practical can you get?

So it’s amazing to think that this baby, that was born in a stable, was actually God. It’s just kind of neat to think about it. We have the story so sanitized, but remember that when it happened, everybody wasn’t just reading from a script. They had no idea what was going to occur next. Mary and Joseph didn’t plan to go to a stable. It must have seemed so disorganized, so crazy. Yet out of all of this, Jesus Christ was born.

If it wasn’t for Jesus, there wouldn’t be Christmas, and there wouldn’t be a reason to hope.

I also want to give an update on the goings-on at the YMCA.

I mentioned that I’ve been running a bit at the YMCA. I finally started to use the treadmill again, and although I didn’t come close to my 5:39 mile record I set back on March 20th, I was able to do an eight-minute mile earlier this week and then one in 7:31 the other day. I haven’t done much running at all the past couple of months, but as my knee improves, I want to keep running, and I would love to beat that 5:39 mark!!

Speaking of records, though, I did kind of unintentionally set one at the YMCA today. Paul was bench-pressing, and he asked me to spot him since he was lifting a lot (225 pounds — two 45-pound plates on each side plus the 45-pound bar). So I stood there to help him get the bar back on the rack, and even though I wasn’t working on chest exercises today, I decided to just jump on there when he finished. I expected to pretty much be flattened by the weight, but since Paul was there I was willing to take a silly risk.

So I barely lifted the bar off of the rack and brought it down. It was really heavy, and I didn’t anticipate I’d be able to get it back up. Once I pushed, though, it started to move! Slowly, but it sure moved. So I was able to grunt out “I got it” to Paul because I really though I had enough in me to push it up. Sure enough, I was able to lift it up! Only one rep, mind you, but that’s still a record for me. My previous record on the bench was 200 pounds even, set back on January 27 of this year.

That was a really nice surprise! I didn’t at all anticipate being able to do it, but I figured I might as well give it a shot. It’s times like this where I realize that I really have made some progress over the last year. It’s encouraging!

Well, a month has passed since I had the partial meniscectomy done on my right knee. I visited the doctor a couple of weeks ago, and I was pretty encouraged after talking with him. Now, one month after the surgery, how are things going?

All in all, I’d say I’m doing really well. The swelling isn’t completely gone, nor is the pain. But certain kinds of pain are definitely gone. For instance, I can twist my knee with no pain, and I can flex it pretty far with no pain. Flexing all the way hurts a little bit, but it’s not real bad. It seems like a different kind of pain, and it’s not unbearable or anything; just more of an ache. So that’s different from before. I also can make my knee hurt a little by extending my leg as much as possible and then twisting my knee in.

I have done a little bit of running in the past week, and I’m able to do that pretty well. I still have a little pain upon impact sometimes, so running might just hurt a little bit. But this doesn’t seem to be constant.

One thing that is totally new is that I’m getting these really severe aches in my knee at random times. The pains don’t last very long, but they are very strong. On a pain scale of One to 10, I’d give them a Six or a Seven. Thankfully, they don’t last long, but it is weird that they just occur when I’m sitting down, lying down — whatever. So who that’s kind of odd.

Anyway, the doctor initially said six to eight weeks is the expected recovery time. It’s only been four weeks, and already I’m doing great — just not perfect. So I’m hoping that this is completely normal, and honestly I don’t really doubt it. It just kind of worries me that I’m not pain-free yet. To be fair, though, the pain seems to be improving week by week.

I can live with this, and I can be patient in the recovery process. I just always tend to worry, “Oh, no. What if I’m broken? What if I don’t ever fully heal?” But I have to trust the doctor knows what he’s talking about. I’m sure he’s seen many, many knees in the past, so I’ve got to believe that I am still on track to be good as new within a month.

I do have another follow-up appointment coming up next Tuesday, the 11th. So that will be interesting, to get the doctor’s opinion on my recovery so far. I have a feeling it will be more good news after I tell him what’s going on. Either way, I’m still doing pretty good right now. Even if I found out it would take a few more months for me to be 100%, that would be totally fine with me. The big thing is I just would love the peace of mind of knowing that I’m supposed to heal up totally.