HomeReflectionsPop It Back Into Place
"You gotta pop it back into place quickly!" Those were the words of my 8th grade basketball coach. Once upon a time I played basketball. I was the point guard for the Riceville "Wildcats"! Great name and very appropriate for this particular team. We were playing one of those tough, close games we seem to be in a lot that year when I had a very painful experience. After passing off the ball to a wing man, I started for the middle to take a pass and lay it in the basket. However as the wing man passed the ball back to me I somehow managed to catch that hard pass with fingers extended straight out toward the ball. As the ball hit my middle finger the pain was excruciating. I had dislocated the joint on my finger. The coach immediately called time out as I began to do something of a cross between a disco dance and an ol' timey fit on the basketball court. He brought me off the court and took my hand in his. He took the finger that had been dislocated and did something that took my breath away. He popped my finger back into its proper place within the joint socket. I screamed in pain and said, "What did you do that for? He said, "You gotta pop it back into place quickly, because the longer you wait the more it will hurt when you do it!"
I have thought back on that experience many times since becoming a Christian. Because in a way Christians can get dislocated or out of joint. When a child of God is "out of fellowship"a dislocation takes place. But our great loving and merciful God takes our hand in His hand of loving discipline and puts us back into our proper place of fellowship. God will restore any dislocated saint any time that saint is willing to allow Him to do so. The longer one waits to "get right" or get into the place where God designed for them to be, the more painful is that process. So remember, "you gotta pop it back into place quickly!" God loves you and so do we!
