Along the road of life, sometimes you must steer toward a place that you'd rather avoid. I went to one of those places recently—the hospital for partial knee replacement surgery. It amazes me that this procedure is even possible. In a world where nobody has figured out how to make the plastic bags in cereal boxes easy to open and close, doctors can go into my leg to replace worn parts and then re-seal it.

I felt relief after this dreaded surgery, but only for a moment. No one had explained that an even more daunting challenge comes from two words that follow the procedure—physical therapy. When I fully regained my senses a couple days after surgery, I discovered that my brand new knee was nowhere close to being ready to use. I learned a lot about physical therapy the hard way—while in the midst of it. And during those long, painful weeks, I realized that strong parallels exist between the regimen of rehabilitation and ministry life.

What I Learned from Physical Therapy

One ...