By John Mabry, III, age 16
Over the years that I have played sport, I have had troubles or obstacles that were injuries in my life. In little league football, it started with a head, neck and back injury that caused me to go to the hospital more than once. I didn't realize it then, but God delivered me from that injury.
The following year, I got a terrible ankle leg incident where the X-Ray showed that I had a very bad ankle bone sprain that was going to put me on crutches supposedly for about a month in a half. But God didn't want things for me to be that long. I was on crutches for about three weeks and afterwards I never felt better. I could run even faster and move more fluently.
By this time, I had stopped with sports to calm down and focus on long term goals – what I would do from 8th grade until forever. That did not last long. I started to get good at basketball my freshman year in high school. My sophomore year, I started to lift weights for football training, basketball and other sports that you mainly use with your arms. Unfortunately, all of this was too much for my right shoulder. I thought everything was perfect until it completely gave out on me.
The pain was so unbearable. Lifting more than a couple pounds, laying on it, moving it, touching it, pushing and pulling objects, and even running gave me pain in my shoulder. My parents and I went to the doctors and all they said was to ice it and take medicine. To be honest, the ice and medication felt like it was making the injury worse than it was. I finally went to a much larger medical office and they found out I had a rotary disc issue and couldn’t rotate my shoulder. My doctor said I would have to go and have a surgical procedure and an MRI. It took 4-5 months off of sports for the doctors to find this out.
In this time off, God and I had a major talk. I know it was God because it was during a Sunday morning service while a song called “Break Every Chain” was going forth. Near the end of the song when it says, "I hear the chains falling," I heard God say that He was going to give my life back to me where I wouldn’t feel bound and chained to a lock that weighed 200lbs.
Knowing that problems are taken care of by God is a wonderful feeling. Even though the procedure was very painful, in the end everything was alright. So now I give God the glory for everything He has brought me out of and thank God for allowing me to play sports and make history. God is the ultimate healer, way-maker and deliverer in my life.