Why I’m Thankful I Dislocated My Shoulder…

For the last few months I have been irrationally obsessed with wanting to buy an electric skateboard.

So when a friend of mine brought his electric skateboard to church, what had to happen next was as clear as day.

Naturally, I decided to take that thing for a night-time joy ride around the church parking lot.

Within minutes I was probably going around 20mph…

I was off and having the time of my life. (briefly)

I started getting closer and closer to a steep turn…

I needed to slow down.

So I applied the brakes, expecting that the skateboard would gradually slow down…

But it immediately stopped.

I flew off the skateboard…

And at this point it was dark enough outside that the ground was very tough to see.

I put my hand out in front of me to protect my head and slid across the pavement…

In a lot of pain, I rolled onto my back (a little embarrassed) to attempt getting up…

But I couldn’t move my right arm at all.

I realized that my shoulder was dislocated…

And to make things worse…

I was in the middle of a parking lot, in the dark, and wearing mostly black clothes.

I was completely alone.

This was not a good situation…

Trying to remain calm, I tried yelling for help to see if anyone was close by…

No one heard me.

So I pulled out my phone to try and call someone for help…

My phone was at 1% and could die on me at any moment.

I figured I had the time to call only one person if they even answered…

So I called my friend who I thought might be close by…

After a few rings, he finally picked up.

I was relieved.

I described where I was and what happened…

At this point, I had less shock and was feeling more pain all over.

He found where I wiped out and brought some awesome people over to get me to the hospital…

I spent the next 3 hours with my shoulder out of place.

As I waited…

I couldn’t get my mind off of one thing…

The one thing I feared most was the doctor putting my shoulder back where it belongs.

I’ve seen lots of movies where people are screaming in pain when they get a dislocation put back.

So when the time came, they drugged me up and wheeled me to a back room.

The doctor tried to keep me occupied by asking me some questions…

I think he could tell I was a little nervous.

As he was talking to me, he slowly started to lift my arm up…

I knew it was coming.

He started lifting higher and higher…

And the pressure started to build in my mind.

I braced myself.

Finally, he gave my arm a quick lift up and I heard a pop…

“There we go” he said… then paused.

“Oh wait…”

He gave one last twist fast…

I heard ANOTHER loud pop…

Then he looked at me.

I sighed in relief.

“Ahhhhh”

That felt amazing.

To my surprise, when the doctors put my shoulder back in place, it was actually the most relieving and best feeling part of the entire situation.

It was like a chiropractor appointment but 10x better.

My arm felt like it should, back to its normal spot.

I realized I was building up fearful anticipation over nothing.

The thing that I was the most afraid of was actually the best thing for me.

I was not planning on experiencing any of this that night…

There’s no way to ever know what tomorrow will bring.

But I am thankful this happened to me.

I’ve realized Fear is often times an invitation…

A tap on the shoulder from God, calling us to more in life.

It is a journey of leaving our current comfort zone and stepping into the unknown.

We don’t know what the other side will look like…

Yet we faithfully take one step after the other.

And with each step we take…

God is with us the whole time, molding us into the person he knew we could become.

I used to think running from fear was best for me…

But now I know that running towards fear is where we find growth.

P.S. I still wanna buy an electric skateboard.