coming to grips with being helpless

About 6 months ago, my ongoing back problems began to rise its ugly head. Due to 24 years of jumping, running, hitting, falling, playing tackle football, jumping for a basketball, 4 years of traveling across the country playing ball and then getting into a 15 passenger van sitting in a coccoon shape for another long days drive...do you remember those days, where your body could take all the abuse you could give it and then suddenly you would hit a dead end, in which your body would say "now you will pay".
Well since about May I have been getting cortizone shots, doing stretching exercises, going to physical therapy, and doing my best to stretch back into flexibility. After getting back to what I thought was 100% on Labor Day weekend, I celebrated by swimming with Candry for 2 hours...then sitting on a hard chair and typing out a 5 hr paper. The next morning, my body screamed its loudest-snack, crackle, pop, and 4 days later I laid in the hospital waiting to get the ole' Cariker family special-a lumbar laminectomy...fancy for hiernated/ruptured disc...(I'm now home in recovery...)

The main point today is that before I finally gave in to the horrible back problem, I had to admit one thing: I was helpless~On my own I could not get up, could not crawl, could not sit on my bed, could not even eat...totally helpless! Their was nothing in me but could cure my problem on its own.

This is one of the reasons why Rejoice Church is planning on launching another church campus in January 2009. We are willing to do whatever it takes, to whomever will hear, as many times as possible to reach those who are "helpless". To supply those who realize they can not "do life on earth and life for eternity" without the help of Christ. Who do you know that is helpless? A friend? A neighbor? A family member?