The pain of a torn MCL put me into the fetal position on the 40 yard line. It was my senior year of highschool and my dreams of playing college football were quickly fading.
My parents were in the stands and I could see the worry in my mother's tear filled eyes. The athletic trainer wrapped my knee in ice and carted me off to the fieldhouse. When you get an injury like this, the fear is almost as bad as the pain. The “What if’s” run rampant in your mind.
What if I never get to play football again? What if I can recover quickly and play sooner than expected? What if this is all a nightmare? What if it’s not?
The athletic trainer said that there was nothing that could be done and that I should keep it iced and make an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon as soon as possible.
On the day of my appointment I had made my mind up that I was going to beat this and come back stronger than before. As I sat in the waiting room an old man with a cane sat right next to me. He saw that my leg was wrapped and he struck up a conversation.
We talked for a while and I told him my story and about how my mind was made up. He told me his story and it was eerily similar to mine. He told me about how he tried to come back too soon and how he subsequently damaged his knee beyond repair. He urged me to listen to my doctor and to pay very close attention to his instructions.
The old man tried to encourage me that my injury was not the end but it was really the beginning of a new direction in life. The nurse stepped into the waiting room and called my name. I turned back toward the man and said, “It was nice talking to you,” and continued down the hall to the examination room.
When the doctor came into the room he gave me my options. I could have surgery or I could wear a brace for 90 days and follow up with extensive rehabilitation. I wanted to do the surgery and try to make a come-back before the end of football season. The doctor said that it would be very risky and if I opted for the quick fix I could end up walking on a cane for the rest of my life.
I told the Doctor about my encounter with the old man in the waiting room. The Doctor asked me what he looked like. The Doctor said that he did not have any elderly patients and he asked the nurse to go look for the old man. The nurse could not find anyone who fit my description.
After much more investigation it seemed that nobody else had seen the old man. The receptionist, the nurse, the other patients, no one had seen the man that spoke with me.
They checked the log-book and there was absolutely no evidence that an elderly man with a cane had been in that waiting room.
I knew that day that I had spoken with an angel in disguise. I listened very closely to my doctors instructions and followed the suggested treatment plan. I never got to play football again but my knee has been very healthy since that time. I have finished an Ironman triathlon, finished marathons and competed in many adventure races over the years, all with no pain in that knee.
That experience with the angel changed my young life. I made plans to go to a different college without any sports team and moved forward with divinely inspired purpose in life. This was the first but not my last experience with angels in disguise.
Fast forward to my new career as a Christian youth pastor. I was a young 24 year old full of dreams and passion to make a difference in the world. A group of local churches held a meeting with various ministers from different congregations. There had been a surge of crime in the area and the meeting was called to try and come up with some kind of solutions.
Each minister was given an opportunity to speak and share their ideas. One by one they went up to the podium. Most were dressed in a suit and tie or a collared clergy shirt. The meeting went on for an hour and then we took a rest break. The group was around 100 in attendance and after spending an hour in the same room it was easy to recognize most of the faces.
When the meeting convened a man went to the podium that I did not recognise. He was not dressed like anyone else. He looked like a bearded homeless person. He spoke with passion and encouraged all of the churches to pray together and support each other. He did not have an organized program to present but he spoke more about showing kindness and working in love and unity.
The man finished his speech and walked off of the platform and out of the room.
We all looked at each other and then people began to ask about who that guy was and which church he was with.
Some of the ministers got up and went to look for the man. He was never located. No one had ever seen him before or after. We walked around the church and looked up and down the street for him. We asked people on the street and nobody saw a man who fit that description. Once again, in my mind I determined that I had seen an angel in disguise.
I am sure that I have had many more encounters with angels over the years. Some encounters seemed so insignificant at the time that I did not even think about that person being an angel until much later.
Angels among us are more common than most people realize. Sometimes I think that if we would just be more aware of our surrounding we would recognise that there are angels that interact with us on a regular basis. Open your eyes and you might just see one standing next to you at the gas station, grocery store or doctors office.
