“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55: 6-7

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2021: My Lost Summer

Summer 2021 turned out to be my lost summer. In the spring of 2021, I was having trouble with my lower back. That’s not unusual. I have been having trouble with my lower back since I was 15-years-old in the 10^th grade.

As a boy, during the winter a group of us would gather on Sunday afternoons at the American Legion field off Whitehead Road in Athens, Georgia and play tackle football without pads. It was a lot of fun. Rarely did anyone get hurt badly.

One Sunday afternoon, my life changed dramatically. I was a wide receiver on a play. I went out into the right flat to catch a pass. Because I had to wait for the pass to reach me, the defender on the play, Bobby Saine, had time to cover me closely.

Standing there, I was a sitting duck. Bobby was a big guy, much bigger than me. As quickly as I caught the ball, Bobby hit me in full stride, and his body rolled across mine. It was a clean hit. Even so, I knew that instant that I was hurt. I wouldn’t learn how badly I was hurt until July 2021.

Regrettably, I didn’t go to the doctor. If I had gone to the doctor, I’m not positive that it would have made any difference.

The pain was intense and constant, and it got worse over the next several days. It took weeks for the pain to subside and months for me to regain mobility. I never talked about the pain. I just learned to live with it.

From that day to this, I have had trouble with my lower back. In the spring of 2021, I experienced another flare-up of lower back pain. For me, that’s not unusual. Those flare-ups have been a regular part of my life for the past 55 years — since that Sunday afternoon in 1966 on the American Legion field in Athens.

Over the years, I have learned how to treat my lower back pain and relieve the symptoms. It’s a combination of fitness training (aerobic fitness, strength training, core exercises, and balance training), isometric exercise, icing, and stretching.

Staying physically fit has been an important part of my life since that Sunday in 1966. Isometric exercise enables me to pop my vertebrae into place. Icing and stretching keep the muscles in my lower back from cramping and causing pain. I’ve been using this regimen for so long that it’s a ritual for me. It’s what I do, and I do it religiously.

In the winter of 2018, my lower back problem took a turn for the worse. I was in the midst of a 2½-year ordeal in preparation for open heart surgery, and because of aortic stenosis, I was forced to reduce my physical activity significantly. For all practical purposes, step 1 in my lower back pain relief regimen, the most important step, was gone. I could still walk, do pullups, and shrugs. That was helpful, but not enough.

In January 2018, I thought I had plantar fasciitis. The pain in my left foot was excruciating. Little did I know that it was my lower back problem attacking me with a vengeance. Since I was unable to exert myself physically the way I had for decades, the ligaments in my legs, knees, and feet were beginning to react with painful results.

In May 2021, I was dealing with another bout of lower back pain. Before I could get the pain under control, I needed to make a quick trip to Charlottesville, Virginia. Katie and I drove up on a Thursday, spent the day in Charlottesville on Friday, and drove back on Saturday. It was two 400-mile trips in three days. Sitting in a car for that long made my lower back go crazy, and I was about to pay the price.

Throughout June 2021, walking was very difficult for me. On a normal day, I walk about 5 miles on hilly terrain. In June 2021, I was forced to cut back my walking to about 2½ miles a day, and by the time I finished walking, just lifting my right leg up off the pavement was very painful.

In early-July 2021, I went to see a chiropractor. He helped me a lot, but he could not solve my problem. With his help, I was able to start walking 5 miles a day again, but I spent most of the rest of my day icing and stretching.

In mid-July 2021, I knew that I needed to see an orthopedist, so I called my nephew, David Snyder, and asked him for help. David is the Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine at Baylor University. I asked him to tap into his network and identify great orthopedic surgeons in my area. Clemson University is very close to me. I knew that there had to be some great orthopedic surgeons nearby, because Clemson’s athletic program would need them.

David did his work and identified Dr. Chris Van Pelt in Greenville, South Carolina. I made an appointment to see his PA, Amy Hunt, in mid-July 2021, and she ordered x-rays of my lower back. The x-rays revealed that my L5-S1 spinal motion segment, also called the lumbosacral joint, is bone-on-bone. The space between those two vertebrae is zero. The nerves coming out of that joint on both sides are being severely pinched. That’s the source of my problem. Amy ordered an MRI to get a high-resolution image of the problem area.

In late-July 2021, I met with Dr. Van Pelt. He told me that my problem is the same problem that Tiger Woods had with his lower back. Surgery fixed Woods’ problem. I hope it will fix mine, too. I’ll know soon enough, because my surgery is scheduled for August 31, 2021.

Dr. Van Pelt said that I would have to spend 2 or 3 days in the hospital. I said, “That’s fine. I need to be home by September 4^th, because Georgia plays Clemson that day. I don’t want to miss it.”

Dr. Van Pelt told me something else. My football injury in 1966 fractured 3 vertebrae and destroyed the disc at L5-S1. It’s no wonder I felt so much pain from that injury. It came to a head in the summer of 2021. I have spent the entire summer dealing with my lower back problem, and it will only get worse unless I do something about it.

My back surgery will require 2 skilled surgeons. Dr. Van Pelt will work on my back, but a vascular surgeon, John York, will get him into position to do his work. Dr. York will make a small incision in my abdomen and navigate through my lower GI tract to the source of my problem. Dr. Van Pelt will work on L5-S1 from the front and back, and then, Dr. York will put everything back in place.

It doesn’t sound like fun, but thankfully, Greenville, South Carolina is a major medical hub. We have the people and resources we need to solve my problem. On September 4^th, I’ll be recuperating at home while I watch the best opening day college football game in my lifetime. It’s Georgia v. Clemson, and it may be for the national championship. Alabama and Ohio State may have something to say about it, but time will tell.

I’ll be 71 tomorrow, but my life is far from over. I still have a lot of work to do in Jerusalem. That means I need to be able to walk many miles a day over hilly terrain without pain. On a typical day in Jerusalem, I walk 6 to 10 miles. That won’t change, and I plan to spend about half my time in Jerusalem starting very soon, I hope.

I would love to begin my work in Jerusalem in earnest in about 6 months. That’s about how long it will take for the fusion between L5-S1 to be complete. I will lose some mobility in my lower back, but I’ve decided not to try and qualify for the PGA Tour. I’ll be just fine for the work that I have to do. Besides, Yahweh’s strength is revealed in my weakness.

Tiger Woods won the Masters after his back surgery. I expect that kind of result, although as I said, I am not planning to join the PGA Tour.

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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”

John 10: 14-18

See “His Name is Yahweh”.