It was an amazing week in Germany for an annual conference
with a network of people who care about refugees across Europe. We worshipped together, prayed
together, took tours of a homeless shelter and apartments for refugees who were
waiting for permission to stay in Germany, and participated in a silent prayer
vigil outside a detention center where refugees were being held. It was a powerful week.
It was also an exhausting trip coming back to Belgium, which
included an early departure (04.30am ~ what were we thinking?!) from the
mission guesthouse. A train ride
to the airport, plane ride back to Belgium, bus trip back to Antwerp, tram ride
(which was 20 minutes delayed, minor inconvenience!) and finally a bus ride got
us to the corner of our block. "Yeah, we’re almost home”, was my thought as I was crossing the street to our side
and admiring the sunshine and beautiful blue sky. In fact, I was just thanking God for blue skies in Belgium
and for the chance to be home again, since all we had seen in Germany was grey
and cold and snow (don’t get me wrong, I love snow, but it was really slippery
and I don’t handle slippery very well as my years advance).
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| Your average, ordinary stop sign... |
And it was in that moment, as I’m enjoying that blue sky,
that I had a close encounter of a very personal kind with a stop sign. As in, I hit my head. Then was confused. Then fell down. A quick detour via ambulance to the
local ER revealed just a superficial cut (no stitches required, though I did
learn the Flemish word for stitches, which is “draadjes”, or you can also say “het
moet genaald worden”, meaning it needs to be stitched!).
Today (I’m 12 days past my close personal encounter), I
told my husband that I sure hadn’t been much of a helpmate this week, to which
he promptly replied that my job this past week was just to rest and recover
from a head injury. I then told
him that I should get paid overtime, since I had rested and napped every day
and was recovering quite well, thank you. And on those days when I did too much, my body really
reacted ~ thus another time out for me. We have
dear Chinese friends in our congregation who keep saying to me “listen to your
body”. Maybe I should have had my
hearing checked in the ER as well!
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| I was in the crosswalk ~ but check out the sun! |
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| Re-enacting the angle where I hit... |
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Though 12 days later, I still have a pained look on my face :-(
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But the most important lesson I’ve learned this week has
centered around this comment in an email from another dear friend who has
herself recently suffered a major head injury: “the irony of a stop sign. There really is a lot of irony in you
hitting a "Stop" sign. The message is loud and clear on that
one! Don't you think?” were her gentle comments among her words of
encouragement this week. Another
friend put it like this in a text message: “you are so busy and you give so much to everything and
everyone this was obviously God’s message to you. She doesn’t get it any other way so I’ll hit her over the
head with it!”…..literally!!!
So I’ve stopped.
Am stopping.
Will stop.
How do I know when to start again?
