Update:
It took me all day on Saturday to get my sermon and PowerPoint ready,
take a shower and do my exercises. I
made the right choice by deciding not to go to the retreat. I would have been hours behind and extremely
tired by the time I got home. In the
evening, Karen and I stayed home and kept warm.
I made some “cookies” over the weekend.
Some of the kids (Jon, Josh, and Kate) came over and brought Buffalo
Wild Wings for lunch on Sunday. The boys
filled up our wood rack in the basement.
My old Pastor, Ray Olson, and his wife, Darlene, came by for a
visit. I got my exercises done and then
Karen and I watched episode after episode of Stargate SG-1 (just finished the
second season). We kept nice and warm in
our house—Karen kept feeding the wood stove.
I thought church went well on Sunday morning. One funny note, after our business meeting I
needed to use the restroom. If you
recall, my wheelchair doesn’t fit into the stall in the men’s bathroom; but it
does fit in the women’s bathroom. So I
have a sign I put on the door when I commandeer their bathroom. It says,
“Temporarily in Use by a MALE Amputee.” As I was going into the women’s
bathroom, one of the women couldn’t wait so with a friend’s help she occupied
the men’s room. She said, “We need to
get our own sign.” So afterwards I made
a sign for her, “Temporarily in Use by a FEMALE because a MALE is Occupying Our
Bathroom!”
Outside the wind is blowing everything into drifts. It’s cold and by Sunday afternoon they had
already called off school for Monday because of the dangerous wind chill and
drifting. Once again, I am very thankful
for Dick Krueger who has been shoveling my snow for me this winter. He has been so very faithful to take care of
the handicap ramp, sidewalks and driveway for me (or make certain that it got
done if he was unavailable).
Monday morning I have a doctor appointment in Eau Claire. We’ll see how the roads are before we venture
too far. Hope we can make it in, I
really hate to reschedule and wait for the next available date. I don’t really want to venture out into the
cold—but it is winter in Wisconsin!
Sunday night, as I got up from the recliner, I slipped and pounded my
stump on the floor. Owww!! It hurt but didn’t appear to do any
damage. I had taken my shoe off but
forgot to change to a “sticky” sock. My
regular old sock slipped on the hardwood floor.
I won’t make that mistake again (I hope!). This is the first time since my surgery that
I have slipped up and banged my leg. I
am thankful that it happened this late in the healing process so it didn’t
break open the stitches.
We get to “sleep in” on Monday morning, whatever that means. Normally, we get up every other day at 4:30
a.m. so staying in bed until 6 a.m. feels pretty good. Karen and I usually do grocery shopping on
Monday after a doctor appointment, but I have a feeling we will skip shopping
this time and get back (or stay) home into the warm.
This extra cold weather is where it is the most difficult for me just
having to stand by and watch. My wife
doesn’t like the cold to begin with and now she has to spend more time out in
it to get me up and down our ramp, load my wheelchair and things in and out of
the car and go park the car after dropping me off. I normally would have the vehicle warmed up
for her and drop her off at the door since the cold doesn’t bother me as
much.
Thought for the Day:
Max Lucado shares that at the age of nine, he attended his first
funeral. It was for one of his
uncles. He tells how “the weeping ladies
frighten me. Glassy-eyed men puzzle me.
My dead uncle spooks me. But then I look up. I see my father. He turns his face toward me
and smiles softly. ‘It’s okay, son,’ he reassures me…Somehow I know that it
is. Why it is, I don’t know. My family still wails. Uncle Buck is still dead. But if Dad, in the midst of it all, says it’s
okay, then that’s enough. At that moment
I realized something. I could look
around and find fear, or look at my father and find faith. I chose my father’s face.” [It’s Not About Me:
Rescue from the Life that We Thought Would Make Us Happy].
Maybe you have shared a similar experience where just a glimpse of
someone else gives you the strength, the hope, the courage to face what
frightens or threatens to overwhelms you.
I find that in my wife when the doctors are explaining something
complicated or suggesting a medication, etc.
She has an amazing understanding of the body, how it functions and the
medical field. So I look to her for a
nod or a shake of the head. I may not
understand it; but if she says it, I trust her enough to follow her advice (I
should have done that years earlier with my diet).
Beyond a person we know, that same kind of assurance can come to us in
times of disaster and difficulty as we look to God. We can’t see Him face-to-face—but we can
sense His peace and listen to His voice through the words of scripture. In the worst situations, His presence can
bring comfort, hope, and peace. The
situation may not change and we may not understand why, but God’s presence
gives us enough courage and strength to make it through our current
crisis.
When we turn to Him in trouble we find that “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). So don’t face your problems alone. Turn to Him. Call upon Him. Seek Him in the midst of your storm. “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth
should change, And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea…” (Psalm 46:2). When everything around us is falling to
pieces, God is the solid rock upon which we can stand. He is a place of safety and refuge. This is one of those things you don’t find
out until you encounter some of the worst days of your life.
Don’t look at the
circumstances of your life—Look into the Father’s face and listen to Him tell
you, “It will be okay.”
No comments:
Post a Comment