L4, L5---The Healed of the Lord
My lower back has been kissing the backside of pain, recently.

Yesterday on court, feeling a little stiffness, I did a little self-traction on my back.  Propping atop a railing by my arms, I let my feet dangle to relax my back muscles.  The subsequent weight of my legs give great traction to pull and release the tension in the spine.  The process needs patience, true.  But it always works.

This time though, I let my lower back muscles relax a little too much.  So much that when my feet touched the ground, a SHARP pain shot up my spine and ran tickling down my legs.  OUCH!!

It was so painful, my back felt caught in a spasm.  I couldn´t move for half a minute.

When the pain subsided, I continued practice, though at a slower pace.  Fernando, my tutor, got a little aggavated when I told him I felt pain.

"Ostia Sarah!,

--Ostia is Spanish for Shit.  In this context, it means Shit man, Sarah!

"Please take care okay,"  He looked me in the eye, and shook his head slowly, intently.  "We have only two weeks before hard court season starts.  And you have to play one tournament every week before you leave.  If you get injured now,... sinceramente, es un puta mierda."

--it´s sincerely fucked up shit.  Mierda is Spanish also for Shit.  But obviously, it´s a stronger type of.... guano.

(My tutor has an endearing way of swearing.  It´s his way of showing his passion and care for you.  Haha)

But anyway, that pain was yesterday.  It has continued today, and while I can still play, I still feel the pinch when I sit down for long hours, or wake up in the morning.  I don´t think suffering is in God´s will, but God sometimes lets us go through things to experience more of Him.  I really believe that.

As I was walking back after my back-rehab swim session today, God dropped this verse in my heart

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,


---Death in my back.  It´s only a shadow.  Shadows don´t hurt.

I will fear no evil: 


---It´s a heart disposition.

for though art with me;

---Amen, Lord.  You are.

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.


It was there and then that I just knew.  I don´t have to worry.