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The Left Side
by Tracy Nunes The left side just won't cooperate. It just won't get with the program. It fights the right side at every turn. The right side is all happy and content and the multiple points of disagreement on the left make the two sides incompatible. It seems hopeless. You may think I'm talking about politics, but while that description could certainly describe congress these days, I'm actually talking about my body. For some reason, the left side of my body is consistently misinformed about its role in my overall health. My left eye was always slow but it's even more so after a disheartening, but brief, encounter with the demon called Botox a few years ago. For a while after that misguided attempt to recapture my youth, I could have been the poster child for reconstructive surgery. If my eyes are going to water or react to light it will, hands down, be the left one. I have an incision from my recent neck surgery on the left side of my neck that makes it look as if my left side neck muscles took a wrong turn somewhere in sharp disagreement with the right. My left shoulder, also the recent playground of a surgeon, is still healing and my left wrist is continually sprained because of genetically loose ligaments. My scoliosis (spine curve) leans to the left and my left butt cheek and upper thigh cannot be convinced to stand down, as they say in the Marine Corps. They are consistently standing at attention in such a way that I have to limp the first few steps every time I get out of a chair to get them to loosen up enough to walk. My right side has its occasional issue but it's my left that rebels at every turn. Which begs the question: should I just do away with it altogether? Silly question, I know. Not that I'm not tempted.... As uncooperative as my left side is at its best and counterproductive at its worst, would I be better off without it? After all, the right side has got it all going on. The right side gets it, ahem, right, and is often dragged down by the left. Or is it? While my left side causes its problem on multiple layers, I couldn't see as well, hear as well, walk as well without itI would not be fully able to function. Even broken and lagging behind, my left side is crucial to my success. Likewise, as much as difficult relationships can drag us down and frustrate us, we need other people, even the uncooperative ones, to balance out our lives. I don't let the left side of my body do whatever it wants to do. I work at it, coax it, even let surgeons cut on it, in attempt to make a more level playing field, but I can't give up on it. I need its blurry-eyed, limping, stiff, twisted personality to help the right side get where it's going. 1 Corinthians 12:18-22 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. I'm often looking for the Easy button, especially for people. Being a jerk? Push the button! Not listening or caring? Push the button! Divisive, mean or just plan uninterested? Button, button, button! But, God reminds me that He puts it all together for a reason, the parts fit just right from His angle. I need that cantankerous left side even when it drags the right side along in its misery. And the reality is that, sometimes, I can be that difficult left side too. Excuse me while I limp away from my computer and don't laugh at my visibly cramped left butt cheek. Show some respect, will you? Tracy grew up in Hawaii but now resides in Tennessee with Richard, her husband of 32 years. They have two daughters and six grandchildren. Writing came after homeschooling her girls and a career in real estate management. She doesn't claim to have all the answers but she knows the One who does. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |