Saturday, February 22, 2014

Saturday (2/22/2014)

Update:

I am over my mental slump concerning doing my workouts.  I’m still sore in the abs and obliques, but I’m doing what I’ve got to do.  On Friday, every time I got on the weight bench it seemed like the phone rang.  Nobody called me the rest of the day, but every time I would just settle back down on the bench and the phone rang again. 

I spent Friday afternoon in my office at church. I took care of a number of housekeeping items and then began work on my message for Sunday. Then I enjoyed the food and the company at the Burger Blast Fundraiser.  It was weird not grilling the hamburgers this year.  I think that I’ve grilled them all but a couple of times over the past 18 years (I was either sick or out of town).  It felt much more relaxed for me since I wasn’t working and our attendance was down. 

With the snow and cold, I am once again held captive and have lost my independence.  Just a little bit of snow makes my ramp impossible for me to get up or even roll across the driveway on my own.  I am looking for those warmer temperatures that we should be having at this time of year!

I came home on Friday evening and did some reading and watched a little of the Olympics.  In my mind speed skating is a lot like NASCAR only the race is shorter.  It is pretty easy to read and watch TV at the same time.

Saturday will be spent doing some ironing and folding of laundry and working on my message for Sunday.  I’ll make some of my approved cookies for snacks during the week and then spend the evening with my wife.

Monday (2/24) is my surgeon’s appointment when I should be released to be fitted for my prosthetic leg.  All indications are that will happen and I’ll be taking the next step in my recovery journey.  I am looking forward getting his approval and moving on.  It has now been 82 days since my surgery and I am ready to go!!!  Right now the plan is for me to wear a “shrinker” sock for a week to ensure I don’t have any fluid buildup in my leg; then I will have a cast made of my leg that they will use to get the initial shape of my prosthesis.  I am not certain how long it takes to make my first “test socket” but I’ve heard only one or two weeks.  If so, I may be taking my first steps by mid-March. 

Thought for the Day:

When you think about God, how do you perceive Him?  I mean things like, “How much does He know?” and “How powerful is He?”  I think that I have a pretty high view of God and yet at times I find myself thinking that God isn’t all that much different than we are—just more of everything.  I don’t think “just more” even begins to accurately describe the difference between God and people.

 I’ve been reading Max Lucado’s book, “It’s Not About Me.”  This morning I read a very thought provoking chapter about how different God is from us.  It was entitled, “Holy Different.”  One of the illustrations that Lucado used to help us visualize the vast difference between God and man is a paper airplane.  We take a plain old sheet of paper and we create a paper airplane.  Now we challenge the paper airplane to some contests:  a math quiz, free throw contest, strongest man competition, karaoke sing off, etc.  Who would win all of these events?  We would—and it wouldn’t even be close.  There is no comparison between the creator—a human being and a paper airplane—a created object.   We so totally outclass the airplane in every category that counts.  This is a picture of the vast difference between God and people.  It is not close.  It isn’t even astronomical.  It is a difference so vast and wide that we realize that there is no real comparison.  We can say that a virus is alive and it may even be good at what it does, but does it compare to us in any real fashion? No, the differences are too significant. 

Isaiah 40:25  “ ‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One.”

Isaiah 46:9-11  “…I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.  I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please… What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.

Power…  Intelligence…  Ability…  Knowledge…  Holiness…  Compassion…  Mercy…  Justice…  Strength…  Trustworthiness…  Patience…  Creativity…  Self-sufficiency…   In these and every other category you can name, God is infinitely superior.  There is no comparison.  He is Holy Different.  He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present. 

Lucado says, “You and I may have power. But God IS power.  We may be a lighting bug, but He is lightning itself.”


I would encourage you to spend some time seriously evaluating yourself in comparison to the Lord God Almighty.  Read what the bible says about Him and see what it says about mankind.  Spend some time in worship of the God who is Holy Different!

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