Update:
I finally got my Testimony and Story about my amputation that I
gave at church on December 15, 2013 uploaded to YouTube. If you’d like you can watch
it, follow the link (or copy and paste it into your browser). You might have to “rewind” the video a little
bit when it starts (for some reason last night, the link started a minute or
two into the video). I also posted it to
FaceBook and to my Blog (look in the archives under: Testimony
(12/15/2013). Here’s the link to watch
it now:
As an added bonus, I also uploaded a very short video clip of me making
my son, Joshua, laugh. If you are a Dr.
Who fan you should enjoy it. If you aren’t
a Dr. Who fan, take comfort in knowing that I am meeting with my therapist
later this morning J
It’s my son David’s birthday today.
I usually go out and find some stupidly humorous birthday card for my
kids. This year I will have to find a
Jib Jab email card to send him. That should do—they usually stupidly
humorous. I wouldn’t want my oldest son
to go without on his birthday. Happy 27th
Birthday David! You make me proud!
Wednesday night I got the most sleep overnight since prior to my
illness and amputation. I got almost six
hours of sleep without any long periods of being awake interspersed in it (most
nights I am awake for 1 ½ to 2 hours in the middle of the night). I hope that continues and gets better each
and every night. After breakfast with my
wife and getting my Update and Thought written, I caught another hour’s sleep
before being up for the day. And then at
about 2 p.m. I zonked out in the recliner for about an hour. So I ended up getting eight hours of sleep
for the day. I have become “addicted” to
playing worship music with my headphones on when I sleep. It seems too quiet to sleep otherwise. That is rather ironic because for years, I
longed for quiet and had a hard time getting to sleep if there was the
slightest noise or if someone was quietly moving about. Now when I am tired, I go to bed and people
are working in the kitchen across the hall from my room, or my wife is watching
a DVD at high volume—and I go right to sleep.
Weird! I slept well again last night although I woke
up about 30 minutes before the alarm went off.
Yesterday, I added a few new stretching and mobility exercises to my
daily routine. Apparently I pushed one
stretching exercise a bit too hard (I know which one it was). This morning I have a sore muscle in my lower
right back. I am hoping to ease the pain
out of that muscle and not make it worse.
Thought for the Day:
One of the books that I am currently reading is “The Difference Maker: Making
your Attitude Your Greatest Asset” by John Maxwell. In the book, he reminds us that “overcoming
obstacles are a normal part of life” and that we need to plan accordingly. We all know that life isn’t easy and that we
will face challenges, difficulties and obstacles as we run the race that is
before us. It does seem that some people’s
lives are devoid of problems and that they don’t have a care in the world. If we looked deep inside their world we might
find out they have their share of difficulties; but even if they are devoid of
obstacles at this moment, they eventually will run into some later. No one escapes life without some obstacles. So the big question is, what are you going
to do when you hit them? Are you going
to face the challenge or are you going to just give up and quit? Walt Emerson said, “What lies behind us and
what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” What kind of stuff are you made of? Your attitude and determination may be the
only thing that keeps you going when you slam head on into obstacles.
A few years back, our youth pastor, Jeff, and I were taking a van load
full of kids to Mexico on a mission trip.
Somewhere along the way (in Arkansas or further south?), we stopped at
an interstate rest stop to have a picnic lunch.
The rest stop was jammed packed with cars and people. We found out that the interstate was closed
ahead because a truck carrying some sort of hazardous waste had
overturned. They were projecting that
the interstate would be closed for several more hours. When you have 15 people crammed into a van
and a ten hour drive scheduled for the day, you DON’T want to hear the word “delay.” I remembered that we had passed an exit
about a mile back. I suggested that we
try the exit and see if there was a service road or something that we could get
around the blocked highway. This was
prior to GPS navigation. Our road atlas
didn’t show any connecting highways, but I knew that not everything was on the
map. So we loaded up, I drove across the
median and headed back north to the exit.
We got off the interstate and there was a service road headed in the
right direction, so we took it. It wasn’t
but a few miles later that the pavement ended and the gravel road began. And then we came to a T and we had no idea
which way to go. Now we had been talking
with the kids about “Listening Prayer” where you ask God to show you and then “listen”
for what you think He wants you to do.
It is not an exact science, but as an experiment, I suggested that as a
van, we should try it. Let’s ask God
which direction and which road we should take.
Worst case, we could backtrack and go sit at the rest stop on the
interstate again. So we prayed and the
consensus was that we should go left. We
did and soon the gravel gave way to a dirt road. At every “road” junction we stopped to pray
and took whatever road we felt God wanted us to take. I figured that pretty soon the road would
dead end; but instead we hit pavement, and then a marked highway and soon we
were back to the interstate south of the road block! We stopped for gas and the attendant asked
where we were headed and had we heard about the roadblock. We told him and his buddy what we had done
and they were flabbergasted. They said
something like this, “We’ve lived here all of our lives and ran these backwoods
a lot hunting; but we don’t have any idea how you got through. We didn’t know that you can get from here to there
except by the interstate. We know that
we couldn’t have done what you did.”
We learned that attempting to listen to God really works! I would also say that it should teach all of
us that just because there is an obstacle in your path, it doesn’t mean you
have to give up. Despite the
circumstances, there just might just be a way around. You won’t find out unless you try. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Keep pushing forward.
Philippians 3:14 “I press
on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God,
through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (New Living Translation).
The best athletes don’t give
up and quit when they fall during a race.
They get up and begin to run again.
Although they may not be able to beat their competition and actually win
the race, they can still be a winner if they don’t give up and they finish the
race. The just won the greatest test of
them all. A test of what they were made
of.
So no matter what obstacles
you face, get up and keep trying. Who
knows what you may accomplish because you didn’t quit.
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