Over the past few weeks we have sustained quite a bit of damage. In fact, I made the statement that if bad things really do happen in threes then I hope we are done!  

First, Hurricane Irene dropped a very large pine tree across the roof of our house and poked through our attic. The next week my son, Nick, had a skateboard accident and broke his foot. The very next day, Dewey walked in from work and said that he had killed a 6-pointer. I looked at him sorta funny because I knew that he had been at work all day. He continued to explain that a very large deer had jumped directly in front of his car.

Fortunately, Dewey was fine, the car, however, was not. I had to laugh because when we first looked at the damage to the car we were thinking it was just a few hundred dollars. It really appeared minimal. The grill was broken and the headlight was cracked. How much could that cost? (More than you would think!!!)  

I am not sure there is any damage that could be done to a vehicle that would cost a few hundred dollars to repair. A feather could gently land on the hood of your car and it would cost more than a few hundred dollars to get the feather debris off the hood.

Anyway, I digress …  

My point is that we have had a lot of things damaged and broken. Some much more valuable than others. Nick's foot being at the top of the list. Nick was actually riding a "Ripstick" and if you are not familiar with a Ripstick or have never ridden one I would strongly advise you to avoid them if at all possible.  They are built like a skateboard but have only two wheels in the center of the board thus making it much more difficult to balance.I've included this photo for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing one up close:

Nick is always trying to convince me to ride the "death stick" as I call it. I think they call it a "RIPstick" because you may "R.I.P. rest in peace" if you ride it. I have tried to explain that it will break my fragile body into thousands of tiny pieces and I just don't want to do that at this point in my life.  

Nick is actually quite a pro at the Ripstick. On this particular day, he was riding down a driveway and saw a car coming so he veered off into the grass. I guess the wheel got stuck between the driveway and the grass and the Ripstick abruptly stopped. Nick, however, did not. He went catapulting into the grass (thankfully not the asphalt) and landed with his foot under him. So all 80 pounds landed directly on his left foot, more specifically, on the bone that connects your ankle to your pinky toe (the one that goes "wee wee wee, all he way home"). In the words of our very close friends at Urgent Care, that bone snapped in half like a pencil! The bone on the top of the foot was cracked and he sustained a very bad sprained ankle. OUCH!  

So now he is sporting a boot and crutches for the next six weeks. That was the "original" version of the story and what I believe to be the truth. Today, a week after the accident, the story goes something like this. He was riding his skateboard (maybe that sounds more "extreme" than the Ripstick) and he was trying to jump from a tree limb to the roof of the house. He was grinding across the edge of the roof line when he did a double backflip to land in the driveway and he misjudged the distance, came in too fast and crashed. He landed on top of the car uninjured when suddenly out of nowhere his skateboard came flying through the air and crashed into his foot. LOL!!!

The Clarks have had a bad run. I hope three is the magic number and we are on the road to recovery. I thought about "things" being broken. We break things all the time. Most are tangible things that can be replaced or at the very least repaired. And if not, we learn to adjust and survive without them. I thought about how many times I've gone to God broken. Not with a broken bone or a smashed-up car or a leaky roof, but really broken … on the inside!  

If you've ever been broken hearted you will most likely agree that is much more traumatic than any outward break you could ever experience. The great news is that we can take all the tiny shivers of our wounded heart and all the fragments from our crushed spirit and lay it in a hopeless pile at the feet of God.  I love that! He wants us to come to him for repair.

So when your life has been reduced to nothing more than a few broken pieces strewn about, get on your Ripstick … No, do not get on the Ripstick … LOL!  Just checking to see if you were paying attention …

Instead just stop, right where you are. If you're on the Ripstick, then get off because I wouldn't advise doing much of anything when you're trying to balance yourself on that contraption … Just stop, drop to your knees and just pour it all out. Lay down all the broken pieces before the Father. Watch him, no ALLOW Him to repair your life.  

I promise it will be much more impressive than six weeks in a boot and crutches!!