Elbow Peace

Numbers 12:3

Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth

A couple of months ago I strained a tendon in my right arm elbow. I continued to lift so the strain slowly was becoming worse over time. About three weeks ago, I decided to cease lifting until it cleared up and healed. 

I wrapped the elbow so expertly myself with an ACE bandage. Can you tell? 

I was disappointed to do so because I have been very consistent with my three days of aerobic and three days of lifting regiment in the mornings after years of trying to be consistent and usually petering out. 

Of the two, I like to ride and run more than lift, so the lifting has always been more difficult for me to stick to over time. Arnie, I am not.

We have heard the term "elbow grease" to denote that extra effort that makes a difference, usually on a physical task like buffing the car with wax. It is generally a solid principle...a little extra effort is the difference between ordinary and extraordinary, as the cliche goes. 

Here in Week 3 of Elbow Peace, my arm has definitely improved. I still sense some issues so I am very intent to wait it out and not resume lifting prematurely. I also have to examine the types of lifts that I am doing because some of them put more stress on the appendages than others.

As a high-achiever, my ability to stick to a task and see it through is one of my strengths. Persistence, along with Smarts, is truly a dynamic duo. However, there have been many times where I have had a very difficult time negotiating  the issue of when to walk away by putting down the  figurative or literal weights. The more effort mantra sometimes self-destructs into a big mess.  Pride plays a part in the inability to wait and maybe even cease an action or activity.  But, usually it is just the persistence principle run amok. 

Soren Kierkegaard in his discourse "To Need God" writes "Would you not be better off now by having won the understanding that life cannot deceive you; is not that kind of losing a winning? "  The gist of the essay is that there is power also in releasing, putting down, and walking away.  Moses is used mightily by God because he has a lowly opinion of himself. The Bible calls him the most humble man  on earth during his time. And those moments where his temper got the best of him (a lack of patience and anger often are a consequence of pride), bad things happened. 

Not every battle can be won and sometimes the wisest course is to lay down the weapons and walk away. So, how does one discern which issues to press and which ones to release? No easy answers on that one. Examining our motives as to why, as well as running endeavors through a biblical ethical grid, is a good start. But there is still a lot of undifferentiated territory to be covered after those two preliminary checks.

Wisdom helps, ours and others. Still, there are unknowns. Pain does not necessarily mean that we are on the wrong road, because resistance and adversity are just as often confirmations that we should continue rather than cease. Very few great things accomplished came easy. So, God needs to give us His wisdom because it is clear that we usually don't have the aptitude and insight  to figure it out on our own.

And that realization is exactly what Soren K. was talking about...