In The Dark

By Kyle Dinwiddie, PRC-Saltillo Blogger

Two months ago, I found out that I needed surgery on my neck after an MRI.  I had to have the surgery because I had a bulging disc that was pressing on my spinal cord and slowly paralyzing me. On the 5th of August, the surgery was a success, but I got a neck brace collar that seemed to limit me even more than the disc.  I did a lot of therapy that strengthened me.  The good thing was I got to go back home, but the bad thing was the neck collar landed me into a deep depression.  Those were the darkest days of my life.  Plus my brother moved to Los Angeles a couple of months before this happened, and I had been thinking about going back to college after my birthday but could not because of the surgery.

I celebrated my 20th birthday at home with my grandparents, my uncles, and one of my aunts even baked me a carrot cake. We went back to the doctor who was taking that tortuous collar off. At the hospital, they led us to an exam room. We sat down and I began reading one of the magazines that they had. I was excited about the doctor taking the collar off. My dad looked at the magazine with me. Suddenly the lights turned off! The three of us strangely sat there in total darkness.  My dad quickly turned on his phone for a light. I tried to read the magazine, but I couldn’t. Had they forgotten that we were in the room? My mom could hear people outside the room. Had the electricity went out? If so, how would they do anything without the internet? Did someone or something turn off the power?

Suddenly the doorknob jiggled and the door opened. As the door opened, the lights suddenly flickered back on.  The doctor stepped in, and we told him about the whole thing.  The doctor thought the story was funny. With a chuckle, he took the neck brace off, and I breathed a sigh of relief.  He told me that he was going to give me the brace to keep. But all I wanted to do with it was burn that evil thing. Then he explained that exam room light was motion-censored.  We had to move around for the light to stay on. If you sat very still the lights would go off to conserve electricity.

I pondered about that for a while. In life, you have to take risks, and step out of your comfort zone.  Move around and explore. Don’t sit in the dark that you’re comfortable in, or afraid to step out of. Instead, get up and try new things. We should charge into tomorrow boldly, not timidly.  God has already given you the victory, but you only have to move. It is time to come out of the dark.

This is Life with Kyle and I will talk to you next week.