Update:
I
decided to not publish an update on Sunday and to give myself a day off of
writing. Now I am back at the
computer. I got the best sleep overnight
that I have had last night. Although I
could have slept in today (it’s my wife’s day off); I woke up and lay in bed
until 5 a.m. and then decided to get up and get going.
I enjoyed worshiping at church on Sunday and seeing so many
people. I wished I had been able to talk to everyone. I look forward to
catching up with you. My children all came over for lunch and have spent Sunday
afternoon with me. That allowed my wife, Karen, to get some well-deserved nap
time. I played Mad Libs with the kids. Then I took a nap and then watched the
second half of the Packers' win over Dallas. What a come back! Go Pack! The family
is all going to watch “Psych, The Musical” Sunday night together. So it was a
wonderful day.
Don’t really have any
pressing plans for Monday. I’ve got a
couple of people planning to visit and then my son, David, will spend the
evening with me while my wife gets away and goes to her play practice.
At church, most of the young children were very interest in
seeing me and comparing the lengths of my two legs. Many of their families had been praying for
me—so they understood something was wrong; but now they got to see me for
themselves. Most were openly curious
about the missing foot. You could see the wonder on their faces. Only a couple of kids looked uncomfortable. I went by two little girls in the hall. One looked uncomfortable at me. Her companion said, “It’s OK. He just got really sick and his foot fell
off, but he’s OK now.” I chuckled and
thought, that little girl may be scared all the rest of her life at getting
sick thinking body parts might start coming loose.
I am getting stronger and healthier each day. I noticed that my stub is not as
sensitive. The pain of changing my
bandage on my stub is dramatically less than it has been. Each day, I am accomplishing more than I did
the previous day. I still run out of
energy at the end of the day and feel like I cannot do one more thing. Often my wife steps in and helps get me to
bed or I just find the strength within me to get it done. One thing that I am learning is to manage my
energy level. If I decide to do
something now, which I can accomplish, that means later my batteries will be
low and I may not be able to accomplish another task. Saturday, I went out to the church for a few
minutes. I was overjoyed to be there and
I pushed myself up and down the hallways several times at high speed and
suddenly my energy level was at zero. So on Sunday morning, I asked people to push
me up and down the hallway, so I could reserve my strength to accomplish what
had to be done. It is good to be
independent and do what I can for myself; it is also wise to accept help or to
ask for it to manage my energy levels.
Sometimes it is tough to know when to gut it out and when to admit that
help would be nice. Help isn’t always
necessary at that moment; but it will end up being critical to make it through
the day.
Have you ever seen anybody park in a handicap spot and then
watch them seemingly without difficulty go inside the store? I’ve often wondered, “Why do they get the
good spot close to the door—they look as healthy as me?” It just might be that they are using up their
one blast of energy to get into the store and get the shopping done. We don’t know what it cost them in energy and
what they’ll give up for the rest of the day to accomplish what they did.
I don’t want to pull a Kanye West and compare myself to a
pro-athlete (he compared being an entertainer as being as dangerous as being in
the military or being a police officer). But in my current state of health, I
put out an enormous effort just to do the simplest things. So be courteous to others whether they are
obviously impaired or maybe just a bit older than you. You never know how much life takes out of
them just to make it through the day.
Thought of the Day:
My thoughts
today drift back to church yesterday. I am thinking about worship. It is so easy for us to think that worship is
something we attend rather than something that we do personally. I hope I can describe the difference. Some folks get up and go to church, sit through
the service, and go through the motions as required. They get their card punched for attending,
but it might have been like going to the dentist. They just sat there and “worship” was done
for them and a round them but it didn’t engage them. On the other hand, some folks go to church
and they worship. They want to give back
to God. They actively engage in the
prayers, the scripture, and the music.
When they sing, they mean the words they say; they are not just
parroting the words. The service touches their hearts because they have allowed
their hearts to be touched by their Creator.
The heart of worship is giving thanks to God for who He is and for what
He has done for us. I think that we
often struggle because our focus is often on what else God could do for us that
He hasn’t already done. It is hard to
give thanks when we concentrate on our giant “To Do List” that we have for
God. Instead we need to focus upon what
He has already done and who He is. If we
zoom in on those things, well then it is easy to begin to worship. So start looking around for evidence that God
is involved in your life. Did you pray
and then it was answered? That is a sign
of God at work. You might say that you
asked for God’s help but it was your neighbor who did the work. Who do you suppose put it on your neighbor’s
heart to help you out. Give God credit
if you ask and it’s answered. That is
one way to see that God is at work in your life. Can you think of other ways? You only see what you are looking for. So start looking for God’s involvement. You’ll be surprised at what you find.
Isaiah 55:6 Seek the
LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
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