Look up atrophy in the dictionary and you will find this definition:
1. Pathology A wasting or decrease in size of a body organ, tissue, or part owing to disease, injury, or lack of use
2. A wasting away, deterioration, or diminution
Not a pretty sight that is for sure. If you have every worn a cast for a broken bone you know what that definition is all about. If you have been reading my blog I have chronicled for you about my
bicycle accident and some of the resulting setbacks associated with it. One that I have been observing all along and now others have begun to notice is the atrophy taking place in my left arm. If I may interject a little levity: my gun is becoming a water pistol. 🙂 (“gun” is a figurative word for the arm, i.e. bicep & tricep) I have watched the size, strength and tone of my left arm decrease over the 2 months since the accident. At first, it was a more subtle thing. My shoulder hurt b-a-a-a-d whenever I tried using it so I began to compromise how I used it, like when I took my shirt over my head. Rather than cross my arms to take my t-shirt over my head I used my right arm to pull it from the neck while my left arm just sort of hung down. But as time has worn on I have noticed an avoidance of using the arm because of the pain involving my neck and shoulder. I asked the doctor if it would help if I used dumbbells to strengthen it and he said “at this point it wouldn’t do much good. The muscle does not know what to do since the nerves can’t tell it what to do.” How encouraging! Well, yesterday I borrowed a 6 and a 9 pound dumbbell from an aerobics teacher in the church. I am tired of looking at what was once a pretty strong arm now becoming a shadow of its former self. I used them last night and then again this morning. Who knows? Maybe I can reverse an ugly trend. Besides, tomorrow I get an injection into the C-6/C-7 vertebrae that will hopefully calm the nerve and alleviate the pain.
(Prayer request btw) That will allow me to get back on track physically and hopefully get me out of sleeping in my recliner and back into bed with my wife.
But all of this got me to thinking about atrophy. Muscles atrophy from lack of use. I can still use my arm but it is not being stretched and challenged. Spiritual muscles also atrophy from lack of use and from not being challenged and stretched. On the physical side: I live with pain. I even function with pain. Why then do I complain about pain from a spiritual aspect? I complain about tough times and “God’s treatment of me.” After all, I am God’s servant and should be deserve to be treated better. (Tell me you haven’t ever felt that way). One of pain’s purposes is to “work my faith muscle,” to not allow me to atrophy in my walk with God. Peter writes, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1: 5-8 (ESV) Those qualities won’t just happen. They will give supplement (interesting choice of words given our current climate) to our faith. But they will only come by the use of our faith, by the testing of our faith, by the use of our spiritual muscles. Atrophy is bad. Physically it shows a muscle not being used for various reasons. Spiritually, it shows a lack of time in the Word, of being tested in our faith, of stretching ourselves beyond where we are comfortable.
What about you? Are you stretching or are you in a state of atrophy? Any thoughts?
Recent Comments