So I was riding my bike down Hwy 30A between Rosemary Beach and Seaside, FL. Flying along that road with no shoulder and lost in my thoughts. I snapped out of my daze long enough to see a black Suburban stopped about 50ft in front of me. When you’re travelling around 22 mph on a bike you can cover 50ft pretty quick.

I immediately sat up and smoothly but deliberately squeezed my brakes. Realizing that I was going to end up slamming the back of the Suburban before I came to a stop on my own I tried to pull off the side of the road. Problem is when you’re at the beach the side of the road is sand. Well, I lost control and ended up making a not so graceful dismount from my bike. And, as evidenced by the picture here, tore up my shoulder pretty good. It could have been a lot worse, however, so I was very thankful that this, along with a few other scrapes, were the extent of the damages.

After jumping up like nothing was wrong (b/c I felt like an idiot) and assuring the concerned tourists who witnessed my crash that I was “totally fine!” And, “It looked much worse than it was!” (as my helmet was sideways on my head and my hands were dripping blood) I very gingerly rode to the general store to get some dressing for my wounds.

When I finally arrived back at our home I handed myself over to Amanda who, being a nurse, was in her element. She went to work doctoring me up. Well, here’s the deal. . . look at that picture. You see those little pieces of gravel in that wound? You can’t just bandage over that. That wound HAS to be cleaned first. If not, infection would set in and it would become far worse than it ever had to be.

So, even though it hurt really bad. I mean. . .REALLY, REALLY bad. . .we had to take the time to scrape and pick the gravel out of that wound. This had to be done before the wound could be properly treated.

Isn’t that how it is with life? How many people do you know that are walking around with wounds that were never cleaned properly? They’ve never taken the time to go through the painful process of picking out the gravel so that the wound can really heal? They just keep covering it up by trying to forget it, lying to themselves and others about it and, in the process, continue to live an unhealthy life as a result.

There’s a saying among cyclists that there are 2 types: Those that have crashed and those that will. Same applies to life. You are going to be dealt a blow. You are going to fall. You are going to get burned. Someone is going to let you down. That’s real.

Don’t ignore it. Don’t just emotionally cover it up and let it become far worse than it ever should have. Take the time and go through the pain to clean that wound. Only then can you move on towards living the abundant and full life you were meant to live!