This past week a really cool story happened.

I was playing basketball in the evening at the local gym. I just happened to play against this one guy that was really annoying to me. He was loud, obnoxious, and would not stop talking.  But as such it was the person that I felt most challenged to be Jesus towards.

I noticed that he was playing with a limp the whole time. At the end of our playing we were all getting water, I swallowed my I’m-annoyed-by-you-pride and approached him and asked him what happened to his knee.

He explained to me that he tore his meniscus a while ago and that it would cost around fifty thousand dollars to get the surgery but because of his insurance he wouldn’t be able to pay for it.

I told him “Hey sometimes when I come across people who are sick or injured I pray for them, do you think I can do that? It will take 15 seconds” He said, “Sure, go ahead.”

I asked him his name. “Alex”, he said. I lowered and laid hands on his knee and prayed a super simple prayer. “I pray for Alex, I declare this knee to be healed in Jesus’ name.”

Then I said, “Try it out.” I backed away to let him try it out.

Suddenly Alex’s eyes got really wide. As he moved his knee back and forth, he said out loud, “No way..”

At that point he went into complete freak out mode and kept on saying, “No way! No way!” He was jumping up and down, bending his knee, trying to aggravate his prior pain as much as possible.

At this point I’m starting to freak out too, as I can’t believe that Jesus just healed Alex’s knee. He is running around in circles in exuberance asking me, “What did you do?!” I asked him about his pain and he said “the pain is completely gone!”

He was absolutely amazed and thankful. He kept asking me if I was a priest or something, to which I replied, “No man I am just a normal person who prays to Jesus.”

I knew in these moments that someone’s heart is open. I continued to explain, “Alex, Jesus healed your knee and he wants to heal your life too.” I shared the good news about Jesus with him and he was really open to what Jesus did for us.

It was a powerful moment and we connected as he started sharing about his spiritual life. We exhanged numbers so that when he was ready to check out a church I’d be a willing partner to take him.

I got to come home that night and share with my wife and my friends how Jesus healed this guy’s knee!


I think part of what was amazing for me about this story was the moments before leading up to asking him about his knee.

Our church has been going through a series where I’ve been personally challenged about “not letting what others think about me influence me.” I have felt the wanting to liked by others creep up in my life.

And something about going up to strangers and praying for him is a socially risky activity that I became increasingly timid about.

But in that moment I realized, “I don’t care what this guy thinks about me. I have the Holy Spirit who wants to heal people so I’m going to pray for him.”

Let’s goooooooo Jesus!