Fractures
I.
The Characteristics of
Fractures
A fracture is, of course, a broken
bone. For those who have not had
one, it is nothing to be envied.
For young people, especially, it is not something to be desired. It may be “cool” for a short time to
wear a cast and have all your classmates sign it but
the “cool”-ness soon wears off.
When the itching starts and the limitations become burdensome then the
fracture assumes it’s normal guise.
Fractures have certain
characteristics.
A.
Pain:
1.
It doesn’t matter how
big or little the fracture is, it really hurts! Some
fractures hurt more than others, of course, but all fractures hurt. They hurt bad and they hurt long.
2.
Now we all know that
“pain is our friend” because it lets us know when there is something wrong. However, once we know what is wrong pain
becomes a nag – and an impatient one at that..
3.
If I may, I will use a
personal experience to illustrate this characteristic. Over our nearly 45 years of marriage, I
have developed a particular practice that normally works out fine. I sometimes have to get up during the
night to visit the bathroom. My
wife tends to be a very light sleeper – sometimes turning on a light will wake
her up and when she’s awakened she has a hard time falling asleep again. So, I have developed the practice of
doing my chores without the benefit of light. I know where everything is and I feel my
way around and usually have no difficulty.
4.
One early morning,
however, I misjudged the bathroom doorway just a bit and slammed my left foot
against the door jamb. I broke the
little toe on my left foot. I’m
here to tell you, that hurt!
It hurt bad! You would have thought that arrogant
little toe was my spine the way it hurt.
One of the littlest bones in my body and I was in anguish.
5.
There is not a lot you
can do for a fractured little toe.
You can’t really splint it or put it in a cast. You could tape it to the next toe to try
to immobilize it but that would only chafe the other toe and get it to hurting,
also. About all I was able to do
was wear soft socks and supportive but not tight shoes. It helped but I think it was more
psychological then physical.
6.
You can get some
temporary relief from the pain with medication but here you run into a very
strange problem. Your particular
pharmaceutical miracle might garner you a blessed four hours or so of relief –
you can think about something else, you can sleep, etc. After the four hours of
relief are up, you ready yourself for another period of the same pain as before
but you have a surprise in store.
You see, it is as though when you took the medication your brain said,
“Ah Ha! We will see about
that!” The pain that you should
have been experiencing during that lovely four hours of relief has been stored
up by the brain and now – NOW – the four hours is up and you are going to get it
all – with interest!
B.
The Universal Effect
1.
Another characteristic
of a fracture is the universality of it.
If you think you’re going to get by just suffering with that fractured
bone, you are in for a real shock!
2.
Here’s the
scenario:
a)
You
slam your little toe against the bathroom doorjamb and break it. Immediately the little toe sends a 9-1-1
call to the brain, “Hey! I’m
busted! He broke me!”
b)
The
brain, after ensuring the toe is not talking about financial well-being, sends
out the alert to every bone, organ, ligament, tendon, etc., in your body and
says something to the effect of, “Alright, people! Mr you-know-who-can’t-walk-straight just
slammed little left toe against the doorjamb and broke him. We need to teach you-know-who to be more
careful and considerate. We
are all going to have a part in teaching him this
lesson!”
3.
That is why, with my
left little toe broken; my entire body was in cahoots against me. I could not walk straight! You remember Walter Brennan in “The
Waltons” or as a crippled side-kick to John Wayne? When Walter Brennan limped on that left
leg, his entire body got into the act – his shoulders hunched, is head bobbed,
his arms waved – it was all over him. I was the same way with my broken
toe. I couldn’t walk straight. I made movements with my left toe I
never realized I made and they all hurt! . I couldn’t concentrate. It was terrible. It was like my whole body was
broken.
C.
Function, Function, Where’s my
function!
1.
In addition to the pain
and the universality of it, another characteristic is that your body just does
not function correctly – or at least as you want it to. All of your movements are affected by
the fractured member or members and it seems as though the entire body is
determined to make the point that you are careless, inconsiderate and foolish
and need to be taught a lasting lesson.
2.
I do my work at a desk
and I found I could not even concentrate.
All I had to do was just think about my little
toe and my entire function would be suddenly warped.
D.
The Aftermath
1.
There is, quite often, a
permanent or semi-permanent reminder of the fracture. Quite often there is a limited recovery
of function in the broken member and, possibly, some disfigurement. This is not always the case,
however.
2.
My little toe, for
example, healed okay. At least it
is no uglier or limited in function now then it was before the fracture.
3.
My left wrist, on the
other hand, is a quite different story.
I fell down a flight of basement steps and succeeded in completely
pulverizing my left wrist carpal structure, in addition to fracturing the Ulna
in both arms. After five operations
(and I had the best Osteopathic Surgeon in this or any other century) everything
healed but I now have some limitations I didn’t have before: I can’t lift as much with that hand, I
can’t grip as well (it really messed up my Golf game) and it looks like a
transplanted Orangutan arm. In
addition to the loss of good looks, I now have osteoarthritis in both wrists
(the right one, which was not injured, developed arthritis in sympathy with the
left) and this will continue until I shuffle off this mortal
coil.
4.
Sometimes the effects of
the fracture just never go completely away.
II. This is a Bible study?
Now, I
am sure some of you are thinking, “I thought he was going to teach about the
Bible. I didn’t think we were in a
medical seminar.” Well, hang on
because here we go. I just hope you
are going to enjoy the ride – it might get a little
bumpy!
III. E
Pluribus Unum
A.
The Human Body
1.
The human body was
created in the image of God. What
does that mean?
2.
Well, we know what it
does NOT mean. Man does not look like God. Man does not have all power or all
knowledge or any of the other attributes of God. To my understanding of the scriptures,
the only way man was created in the image of God was aa
a trinity. God is God, the Father,
God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit.
3.
Ancient Jewish
commentaries to the contrary, man is also a three-part,
triune being: Body, soul and
spirit. We can’t go into great
length in this study regarding this (Please
see the Bible study “The Saga of
the Spiritual Man”
for a complete treatment of this subject and the new birth).
4.
The unity of the human
body is provided by the skeleton.
That structure of bones, connected by tendons, ligaments and muscles is
what allows the human body to have its form, dexterity, variety and
substance.
5.
You could probably live
for some time without your skeleton, lying in bed and hooked up to various
machines. Your organs would still
function for a while but you would be totally helpless, unable to move
anything.
6.
As discussed earlier,
any fracture of that skeletal structure – that unity – causes pain, malfunction,
disablement and in some cases lasting
disfigurement.
B.
The Spiritual Body (Individual)
1.
Granted that what we
have said about the triunity of the human body is true, it stands to reason then
that the spiritual man – the creature created by the Holy Spirit during
conversion – is also created in God’s image and is also triune. Only he is composed of Faith, Hope and
Love.
2.
We have said that the
unity of the human body is provided and supported by the skeleton. The unity of the spiritual man,
according to the scriptures teachings about his creation, is provided and
supported by the Holy Spirit. That
is why when there is a separation between the spiritual man and God – a fracture
in the unity or skeleton – there is malfunction, disability and in some cases
lasting deformity in the spiritual man.
3.
Now the question comes
up – and this is the crux of the whole teaching – and it is absolutely critical
that we as a local body know and apply the answer. Why do we not witness the power of God
in our midst as in days of old?
4.
When was the last person
brought to the altar and prayed through to salvation? When was the last time a seeker was
filled with the Holy Spirit? When
was the last time a critically ill individual was brought into the house of God
specifically for prayer and was healed?
I dare say it hasn’t been days or weeks or even months since these things
occurred. I dare say it has been
years AND WE ACT AS IF IT WAS OKAY!
WHY?
5.
Answer: The unity of the body of Christ – local
and universal – is provided and supported by one thing and one thing only. Everything else stems from it and
depends upon it.
a)
It
isn’t our common faith – all Christians have some differences in various
doctrines.
b)
It
isn’t our organization – all denominations differ in organization.
c)
Jesus
told us. He said, “By this shall
all men know you are my disciples because you have love
one for another.” Paul pointed to
this one thing as the unifying force in Colossians 3:14 by referring to love as
the perfecting or maturing bond.
6.
Now, I am going to have
to caution you about this. This
whole topic could be passed over very lightly in your mind. “Love? Of course I love my Sisters and Brothers
in the Lord!”
7.
Do you? It has been stated lately by a well
known Christian personality that the biggest problem the church faced today is
covetousness. Unfortunately this is
saying the patient is dying from the symptom – not the disease. To covet is to lack love. To envy or be jealous is to lack
love.
8.
What is the love talked
of here? The most beautiful poem
ever written about love is the 13th chapter of I Corinthians. The difficulty with the love described
in that chapter, of course, is that it is humanly impossible for you and I to have it or to practice it in and of ourselves. It is only
as we are filled with the love of Jesus and let His love flow through us that we
can truly love as He loves and thereby bring the unity so needed in the church today.
9.
Let us - each one of us - make
a special effort to love our Christian brothers and sisters as Jesus does. We can
do this by being aware of what are fellow Christians are going through and supporting
them with prayer and whatever else we may be able to do for them. This is known by
the term "body ministry" - ministering one to another. Paul tells us the perfect
bonding agent of body unity in the church is love (Col 3:14). For the sake of unity
in the local body and unity in the church as a whole, we need to start striving to
keep this unity through loving one another.