Possibilities?

I always look forward to Giveback workshops. A unique resource in the world of brain injury, GiveBack and its founder Dr. Larry Schutz have made a huge impact on my recovery. Also, the folks who attend understand one another in ways no one else can. I have come to love the other recoverers and their families in a very special way and find they are often in my prayers.

I learn something about myself and about recovery every time I go. I never come away empty. Tonight there were three "World Class Recoverers," who had recoveries that were truly miraculous. Their determination and grit inspired me greatly, but I also found the evening troubling in a way.

Each had injuries that one would expect tp leave them in a nursing home or at least unable to return to the ebb and flow of life's ever challenging tides. Catastrophic injuries. Even so, each woman had applied tremendous effort and perseverance as she struggled to overcome terrible insult to their brains.

It almost seemed to me as if the message was "If you are determined enough, try hard enough, you, through your own effort, can overcome your brain injury, no matter how severe." As inspiring as that may seem, it simply is not true. Sometimes the injury is so severe that such stellar recoveries are only possible if God steps in with a miracle.

Normally, it wouldn't be an issue, and I wouldn't say anything about it, except I have seen the harm that can result.

Our son Richard was 13 when he was in a ranch accident that left him a paraplegic with a brain injury. Richard had lots of grit and a determined spirit plus a strong faith in God. Well meaning folks told him he could overcome his disabilities and he did overcome many of the effects. He had an award winning high school career and went on to college.

Richard worked hard on his recovery. He didn't have the advantage of Dr. Schutz' excellent self therapy training, but he had done his rehab at Craig Hospital in Englewood, CO and was doing well, or so we thought. But then Richard started going to healing meetings where he was told and believed that if he just had enough faith, he would rise up out of his wheelchair and walk!

If he could just try harder, increase his faith... then God would heal him. Richard struggled with this. He would lunge forward expecting God to reward his faith by causing his legs to support him. As time went on with one disillusionment following another, Richard began to feel God was capricious and uncaring, that God set an impossible task before him... and he began to hate God and himself.

People who preach a PART OF WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS ABOUT A SUBJECT AND DO NOT PUT IT IN CONTEXT WITH THE WHOLE BIBLE may as well enlist in the service of the enemy. If it isn't the WHOLE truth, there is NO truth in their message.

Of course, that is not what happened tonight, but I was concerned that there was an underlying tone to the message which seemed to make a promise that with enough effort, brain injury survivors can also achieve recoveries on the par with those we saw on the panel, a premise that cannot be universally applied.

I realize I am over reacting and am probably the only person who saw it in that light. Good. It's off my chest now. It was a tender spot in my heart.

On a brighter note, I was inspired by the amazing recoveries the panelists had achieved and, as always, learned much from Dr. Schutz. Sue did a wonderful job with the food, especially the mini pizzas. Yum!