One Round at a Time
God is the ultimate teacher. And just like our teachers, His lessons build upon one another. He typically, in one way or another, prepares us for the upcoming trial, suffering, or lesson in our lives. Now, the Lord also teaches through immersion experiences, for which we often find ourselves totally unprepared.
Reflecting on today’s podcast (an interview with Brian Walsh), I see how God was using another man’s immersion experience to prepare me for the huge personal setback (and major life lesson) of tearing my achilles tendon.
Brian Walsh was only 17-years-old when he was consumed by flames as a volunteer firefighter during a response to a neighborhood house fire in the outskirts of Philadelphia. Most people thought he would die that night, but he didn’t. Most people thought he would die in the burn unit where every other person he had once been there with died of infection, but he didn’t.
He did, however, have immense wounds and scars from the burns both internally and externally. Brian’s face was unrecognizable after the fire. He would never see his former face again. That’s a serious cross for a teenager to bear.
Think you hate wearing masks? (Lord knows I do) Brian had to wear a healing mask for 23 hours a day for nearly two years. He wore it everywhere he went, drawing all types of rude comments and stares from strangers. Brian’s mask covered his entire head and neck down to his shoulders. There are photos in his book, Beyond the Mask: How my Tragedy Sparked an Incredible Life: Lessons I Might Never Have Learned, and they give just a glimpse at how miserable it must have been.
Despite this, Brian would still go on to get married, have children, and build a successful financial company.
Brian has one of the most inspirational stories I’ve ever heard through a first hand account. His confident attitude and self-deprecating humor would almost be too much for someone who doesn’t share his Philadelphia attitude like I do. When I met him, I knew I found someone who would be a great friend and mentor for years to come. Brian was my kind of guy and I knew I had much to learn from him.
At the time of the podcast, I was almost 40 days away from tearing my achilles. These big (though relatively small compared to Brian’s) setbacks in life have so much to teach us. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned from Brian, and my own experience, is this:
Don’t let your suffering go to waste. Use this time to become a better person, then share the lessons you have learned with other people. But no matter what you do, don’t give up.
It took immense courage for Brian to endure every step of his recovery, and even more courage for him to write this book detailing it all for the world to read. I, myself, am now needing to draw from that same pool of courage with each step I take on my tender, swollen achilles. I have to force myself to go against the last 80 days of intentional gentleness with my injured leg in order to start putting weight on it. Each time I attempt something new, I am sweating, nervous, and unsure. But I recall people like Brian, along with the stories I’ve heard of wounded veterans, and the injury comebacks by my favorite athletes, and then I push myself a little bit harder.
Your suffering has many lessons to teach you, and it is your responsibility to then share them with others. While I’ll never understand what Brian experienced, I am 1% closer to it now than I was before. Enduring hardship helps us better relate to others who have experienced life-altering setbacks similar to ours.
Brian taught me that sometimes your life goes up in flames, but that does not mean that it has to end.
You don’t give up just because life gets tough, no matter how tough it gets. I love Brian Walsh because he embodies that same Philly spirit that my childhood hero, Rocky Balboa, showed me in every Rocky movie.
Rocky tells his son in the sixth movie that “life ain’t about how hard you can hit, but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward.” He says that only quitters go around putting the blame in their life on other people or unfortunate situations.
When Brian was laid up in the hospital bed covered in bandages, he wasn’t thinking of having a successful life 50 years from then or how soon he might get back to thriving. He was just focused on surviving that day. He took the approach that Rocky would teach Adonis Creed, “One step, one punch, one round at a time.” When we find ourselves in the midst of a fight, even a fight for our lives, let us take that same approach.
One step. One punch. One round at a time.
It’s necessary, and inspirational, to have a vision for the long run, but when things go up in flames, we have to focus on the here and now. One day, like Brian, we will recover. Things might not look the same, but different doesn’t always mean worse. God has a plan for each of us, which is greater than we can ever imagine. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Higher than the sky is above the ground are His thoughts above our thoughts.
Pray today that we can see our circumstances through the eyes of our loving Father. And that we may have the prudence and fortitude to take the next step and to throw the next punch, so that we may fight the good fight one round at a time.