I was mowing the backyard when I slipped on a patch of mud and fell backwards — slightly pulling the mower towards me. My foot went under the fast-turning blade and the tip of my sneaker was sliced off. Surprisingly, I didn’t panic as I reached into the bloody mess of what was left of my shoe. My toes were still intact, but the blade had cut through the underside of the first three of them. I thanked God right then and there.

I hopped into the house, removed the shoe and began rinsing my foot off in the bathtub. The pain was a combination of the lacerations and the force of the shoe being ripped at the tip. I figured it was just a nasty nick that could be treated with some soap, peroxide, gauze and tape. My wife was able to get a better view of the damage. “You got meat hanging out,” she cringed. I needed to go to the emergency room.

I went to the hospital where the doctors cleaned me up and closed my wounds with 16 stitches (10 in my big toe, 6 in my second). The only real discomfort I had was when my stomach and ankle muscles decided to cramp as they were threading the needle into my flesh. Being the social media enthusiast that I am, my iPhone was in full effect throughout the process (it was a good distraction from the pain and procedure).

I spent approximately four hours at the hospital from admission to release. I looked at my surroundings in between chapter readings of REWORK (which is a good book, btw). People were literally wailing in pain with the fear of death in their eyes. What impacted me the most is that this is the scene in thousands of emergency rooms worldwide. I thanked God again that it could have been much worse.

The experience got me to thinking about faith and I captured those thoughts here:

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So what does all this have to do with a guy named Mike Gudeman? He was my college roommate my freshman year. He lost 1/2 his foot in a farming accident as a kid — but it didn’t stop him from playing football, running track and riding motorcycles. I imagine the pain of having my toes grazed by a mower blade (as an adult) is nothing compared to losing skin, muscle and bone (as a child). But life goes on and GOD is truly in control.

Until next time…