Praying on wheels

How many times I took long walks during my teens and early twenties, pondering the issues of my life - career, relationships and faith. As I walked, I prayed.

In my early thirties, I remember playing my guitar (I used to be a classical guitarist before my accident) and singing along in prayer as I played.

After my accident, my prayer became more simple. It often consisted of saying one devout Our Father because my energy was low. Or perhaps I would read the Bible and pray afterwards. I remember reading passages from Job, searching for answers to the doubts that arose when my life was disrupted by my spinal cord injury.

Those answers did not come in the form I expected. I never thought that Bob, who came to my home to sell me a wheelchair, would be the agent of change. He was a vet, about twenty years older than me and an ex-high school teacher and coach who was coping with a progressive neurological disease that had him using wheelchairs. He played wheelchair tennis and began to recruit me after he saw me watching ESPN on several visits.

"You like sports?" he asked.

I shrugged. In the months after my accident, I wasn't sure I liked anything.

He dragged me outside to try his handcycle which was the first time I moved fast in months. He ordered a speedy wheelchair for me and dragged me over to a tennis court to play tennis.

I thought he was nuts.

But the day after, I took myself over to the tennis courts and hit bucket after bucket of balls over the net in anger. The high school tennis coach came over after two and a half hours and asked me if I would like lessons, noting that I appeared to be 'fit'.

And so it began. Through wheelchair tennis as an outlet, I met others in wheelchairs and my healing began.

I certainly never thought that I would learn to pray while rolling myself around in a wheelchair. That was never in my life plans. It's not that much of a change. I still pray about the same issues - career, relationships and faith.

And I thank God that someone like Bob cared enough to extend his hand to me.