Contrary to what I wrote last time, I might need foot surgery after all. One of my foot doctors, the one I went to for a second opinion, said he has never seen a case like mine before. He literally–no kidding–mentioned the Guinness Book of World Records, for the size of the “accessory ossicle” in my foot.

There is a definite rupture in the tendon, but for unique reasons that I can’t explain here it might heal itself. No guarantees. It would take one to three months of total rest to find out, and then it might need surgery after all.

I’ll see the other doctor early next week, and I’ll be asking my primary care physician if he can recommend any else I should ask. There’s a super-specialist in Richmond, but he has no appointments available—unless God opens one up.

It could be worse: I won’t need surgery on my foot, as I’ve been more than half expecting. Based an MRI report today, the verdict instead is that I need to stay in a removable cast and completely off my left foot for six to twelve weeks.

Again.

Most adults have about 206 bones. My count (other things being equal) was 208, but now I’m up to 210. Those extra bones are “accessory ossicles” in the peroneus longus tendon running along the outside of each foot. What are bones doing inside of tendons, you ask? I haven’t the slightest idea. It’s not an uncommon condition, though. You might have one or more of these bones yourself: they’re found in 26% of feet. As I understand it, they don’t usually cause trouble unless they break. The one in my left foot broke in two about sixteen years ago. The one in my right foot broke about five years ago. The ones in my left foot either healed together and broke again (that can happen, I’m told) or else they simply started irritating my tendon again a few weeks ago.

The treatment required total non-weight-bearing rest for the foot, which is just about the opposite of total rest for the rest of me. Walking with crutches is hard work, and I still have a sore shoulder left over from not-totally-successful surgery year ago. This afternoon ago I placed an order for a wheeled “knee walker,” which ought to help considerably. It might prevent some damage around the house, too: I dropped three things today while trying to navigate, on crutches, the ordinarily simple process of making a sandwich.

Some perspective is called for at a time like this. I have a sister who would probably like to be able to say she was “handicapped again,” as I put it in the headline here. Her leg amputation at age 18 did not produce the kind of disability that comes and goes. Sometimes atheists ask, “Does God hate amputees? He never seems to answer their prayers for healing.” If it were my place to tell my sister’s story, you would learn that her amputation has not at all been her greatest challenge. Still she loves God, and she knows God loves her. The question, “Does God hate amputees?” would be mildly offensive if it weren’t simply laughable. God has other ways than healing to demonstrate his love.

Anyway, here I am at age 55, going through my third bout with accessory ossicle issues. (I like how those words roll off the tongue, don’t you? It may be the most mellifluous of all injuries.) Things fall apart. People do too. I learned about entropy in high school, but I never took it so personally then as I do now.

The apostle Paul wrote in Phillipians 1:21 that “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He went on (Phil 1:22-26) to consider whether it would be better to go straight to be with the Lord, and rejected the idea only for the love of those who would remain behind. Still there is no doubt he was serious about the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus,” counting everything else as rubbish, and pressing on toward what he had not yet attained (Phil. 3:7-14). He knew from experience how to find strength for all things, in all kinds of situations, in Christ Jesus his Lord (Phil. 4:11-13).

I have not attained to whatever level Paul had reached, much less to all that Christ calls me to be. Daily I face physical weakness, and not just in my feet; my shoulder has been sore for nigh unto two full years now. I spend some two to three hours every week on other medical treatments at home, besides visits to doctors’ offices. More than that I face my own very real spiritual weakness. I cussed out loud today when I dropped those things in the kitchen. I was angry at being on crutches. I was angry at not having a hand free to carry the mayo from the fridge to the counter. In retrospect, I’m laughing at myself for that. God gives grace, thankfully.

It’s a small thing, anyway, in view of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. Someday my body will fall apart completely, and I’ll have the overwhelming joy of knowing him face to face. There are points of pain in the process, but each one brings me closer to him—and that’s a far greater good than two strong feet.

One part of the answer to the famous problem of evil is that God uses pain and suffering for soul-building. Health problems are undeniably a form of evil. I’ve thought a lot recently about whether I would want to be young again, as in the days before I had such personal knowledge of entropy. A stronger and healthier body (with fewer bones in my feet!) would be nice, certainly—but no, even with casts and crutches in my life, I wouldn’t ever want to go back there again. More specifically, I wouldn’t want to be the person I was then. There has been—I can sense it as surely as anything—a kind of reverse entropy in my soul, a growth and strengthening of my core being, which I can trace directly to the evils and other challenges I’ve experienced in life. I’m more fragile on the outside than I was, but by God’s grace in Christ, I’m more solid on the inside.

There is a long way yet for me to go, but I’ll walk that path gladly—even if it’s on crutches.

(Also posted at Thinking Christian)

Greetings to you, expressing our hopes that you’re having a great Christmas week.

We had a quiet but very merry Christmas here with the family, spending the holiday here in Virginia for the first time in eight years. As I write this, though, I wonder about changing the name of this update site to “Blessings and Battles.” All of 2011 has been this way, and it shows no sign of slowing down.

New Atheists’ Reason Rally, and Reason, Really
I woke up very early on Christmas Eve morning with a burden and a hope. The burden has to do with the upcoming (March 24) “Reason Rally” in Washington, D.C. (see reasonrally.org; I don’t want to link to it directly from here). It’s being billed as “the largest gathering of the secular movement in world history.” Leading atheists including Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion) and PZ Myers (famous for grossly irreverent stunts involving what he calls “Communion Crackers”) are scheduled to headline this event.

These opponents of Christianity have claimed for themselves the brand of “reason,” but in fact their claim to the term is very, very weak. To explain why would take a book—and that’s the opportunity. As I lay awake thinking and praying about this, I realized it would be entirely feasible to assemble a team of writers to produce a book-length Christian response to the Reason Rally, to be called Reason, Really. I proposed the idea to writers and editors I know, and we’re making fast progress already in just the few days since then.

We want this ready for release before March 24, so we are only planning on producing an ebook at this time—although this morning I got a lead on a print publisher who I’m told might be “small and nimble enough” to put it in print by then. We’re also considering a condensed “Minibuk” version for distribution around the edges of the Reason Rally, if anyone cares to go there and do that—which is another item for prayer.

If you want a preview of what we might be thinking about atheists’ weakness on reason, you can take a look at a couple of short articles that I have written, and another one written by a friend of mine.

Speaking on Faith and Science
I’m booked for two talks on January 5 at the Epicenter student conference in Albany, NY, on the topic of faith in an age of science. A recent study of young people’s faith found that one of their great sticking points with Christianity is its supposed poor relationship with science. There are some tragic misperceptions there: Christianity and science go well together, as I hope to help them understand.

Health Issues Continue
Speaking of science, I’m sure grateful for medical help. I’m in the middle of an extended asthma flare-up, and I had my first asthma-related ER visit last week. These things are expected, and not too frightening in retrospect, but not enjoyable while they’re going on. I’m still in treatment, still having some breathing issues, and praying I’ll be well by the time of the Albany trip.

And then there’s my foot. I’ve had repeated problems with an “accessory ossicle” in each foot—an extra bone inside a tendon, one that certainly doesn’t belong there, but that I suppose is some kind of hereditary flaw that some people experience. I started stair-climbing for exercise several weeks ago, which was, apparently, not a good idea, because it irritated one of those ossicles, and now there’s a good chance it will have to be removed surgically next month. On x-ray it is the largest one my doctor has ever seen. He says recovery will involve three weeks in a cast. Until then I’m wearing an orthopedic boot on that foot.

Thank God I’m a writer/planner/strategist and not working physically for a living. I can still keep on going, by God’s grace. Thank you for your prayers.

Last Thursday and Friday, leaders from about thirty major worldview ministries gathered near Leesburg, Virginia, to make plans to foster a new movement of deeper discipleship in Western Christianity. I (Tom) was privileged to be part of the planning group for this meeting, which was called and hosted by Chuck Colson. The ministries and organizations represented there included Focus on the Family, Truth In Action, The Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, Biola University, Prison Fellowship, World Magazine, the National Hispanic Leadership Council, and too many more to name.

In a group like this, with so many leaders representing such a variety of callings it was bound to be challenging to find a common vision and agenda. Our one hope for unity was in our common love for Jesus Christ and our shared sense of urgency for spiritually-based change in America and the rest of the Western World. We had about 24 hours to work together. One outcome of significance for me was making new friends.

As a group, we forged a way through somewhat complicated paths and came to agreement on a general sense of purpose, vision, and directions to follow. God was clearly at work to make that level of unity possible. We set up working groups to take us through our next steps, and tentatively calendared a much larger meeting to come next spring.

What will come of this? Time will tell. From my perspective as a strategist, I believe we’re on a path that could lead to widespread new equipping of believers like you and me: new resources to understand the meaning of our faith, how to be confident in its truth, how to live it out in a way that will testify of Christ’s greatness to our entire culture. Thank you for praying for us as we seek God’s leadership.

Salvo magazine has just published its winter issue, with an article of mine featured on the cover. You can read it online: Hunter-Gatherer Nut Cases. It’s a satirical critique of the search for spiritual and ethical knowledge inside of MRI scanners. Check it out!

This is not, by the way, a critique of neuroscience, or of any other science. My subject is the abuse of science, which happens all too often by way of adding metaphysics—denying the reality of spiritual realities, to be specific—to it and calling it science.

Thank you for praying for us. Here’s our latest summary:

• Lisa remains on homebound instruction because of her foot injury, but she’s improving significantly. She has been walking on it some, and starting on Tuesday she’ll be going back to regular school on a partial schedule. We are very grateful for the teacher who has been coming over to spend an hour or two with her each afternoon.
• Jonathan was cleared of suspicion (as he should have been) for the theft of the laptop at his school. The victim of the theft was a friend, and the theft happened shortly after all of them were together in the cafeteria, so Jonathan and a couple other students chipped in to pay for a replacement computer.
• I suppose you could say those two themes are combined in this next item. Last night Lisa got a cord wrapped around her injured foot, and didn’t notice it because she had on her orthopedic boot. The result was that the 7 ½ year-old Mac laptop the kids use for homework (and of course Facebook, too) crashed off the counter to the floor. We’re thanking God that although the screen came out of the lid, it was repairable (for now at least) with some clear packing tape!
• My (Tom’s) time at the National Conference on Christian Apologetics was both very fruitful and very encouraging. I had opportunity to lead about 70 Christian leaders in an extended discussion on the question, “Now that we have such good answers to questions about the faith, how are we going to put them to use to equip the church and change the world?”
• I’ve been continuing to meet with atheist challenges on my blog, including interactions with Stephen Law, and atheistic philosopher at Oxford University. It is a challenge, but God’s truth is up to the test. There is more work to be done on that conversation, but I have to set that aside for now to keep up with other priorities.
• Sara continues work on her mom’s estate, and is keeping the rest of us organized to the best of her ability. It is quite a challenge!
• My shoulder still needs prayer for complete healing. The joint is in good shape but I developed some persistent tendonitis.

Coming up early in December, I will be working with Chuck Colson and others to co-lead another meeting of Christian leaders to work on the same question. This is to be a steering committee for a much larger gathering of 300 to 400 leaders next March. We’ve set forth our vision and goals in a paper that my colleague T.M. Moore summarized today at the Colson Center website, What We Seek.

I’m still trying to catch up on follow-through from the apologetics conference. It’s a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous, as the saying goes. I’m trying to sort through all the little pieces of paper that come home with me from trips, and need to be organized into expense reports and the like. I do not love paperwork. Meanwhile I’m also working on what it will take to sustain the momentum we began there, to keep these leaders thinking about how to change the world.