Riding Tandem With The Tandems

I titled this blog "Riding Tandem" based on the band's name, The Tandems. I thought it fit perfectly since this is my account of our journey and I am essentially "riding tandem" with them on this adventure.

The ride to this point has been one filled with twists and turns and accentuated with a few hills and valleys. In fact, if you want to go way back to the very beginning, it would take you to a stormy fall night when Josh was in the 8th grade.....

(Be patient with me here or skip this part...this history is an integral part of the story that I want to document for Josh's sake, but it might bore you.)

Josh was born an athlete. His first word was "ball", he never really played with any toys except balls, and his favorite outfit was a football uniform. As I looked through old pictures the other day, I got so tickled when I realized how often he was wearing a football uniform....not just outside playing but even as we went about our daily activities. I remember when he was about three or four years old he was so upset because I wouldn't let him wear his football uniform to church. We finally came to a compromise; he could carry his helmet with him. I'm telling you, this kid loved football.

We soon saw that his talent matched his passion. When Todd (who was an all-state quarterback) would come inside from throwing the football with him out in the yard, he would shake his head in amazement and remark that Josh was far better at throwing the football than he was at that age. We figured we had lots of football in our future. 

We hit a bump in the road, however, one rainy night at Carver Middle School. Josh was playing quarterback for his 8th grade football team, and this was probably the second or third game of the season. Sitting in the rain was miserable, but the lightning was downright dangerous. I remember being appalled that they weren't calling the game off due to the lightning. It wasn't long before Josh was running the ball and he tried to cut around someone who was coming right at him. No one even touched him, yet he crumpled to the ground. And he didn't get up. It turns out he had torn his meniscus and ACL. This resulted in two separate surgeries six months apart with each followed by weeks of pain, crutches, knee braces and physical therapy. In all, the injury, surgeries and recovery encompassed every aspect of his life for an entire year.

At the time of the injury, I knew we as parents needed to cushion this disappointing blow with spiritual truths and long-term perspective. We told him that God would work all things together for good and that we should be waiting and watching in expectation for the ways God could use this experience for teaching, shaping, building and blessing. I remember one morning soon after the injury reading the bible verse that says "Give thanks in all circumstances..." and stopping to literally say, out loud, "Lord, I thank you for this knee injury. I don't like it, I don't understand it, but I do trust you and so I thank for whatever you can do with and through it." And my spirit was genuinely at peace.

Josh was a little lost after the first knee surgery. He had always filled his time with sports, either organized and competitive or just for fun with friends. Now he was looking at a long-term season of being sedentary. He used this year of inactivity to look for new hobbies and find a way to keep sane while sitting on the couch. It wasn't long before he picked up a guitar.....