Update:
Friday
I decided to go to work at my office for the morning. It was a little icy because of the
precipitation the night before, but the ice was rough and taking it slow and
steady with my walker it worked just fine.
I was able to get a lot done in the morning and decided that I felt good
enough to stay the rest of the day. So I
was at work from about 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
That is the first full day I’ve spent at the office since late
November. It felt good and I can
actually see some of my desktop now!
At
lunch I ran into the motorcycle shop where my bike was stored all winter. I asked them to install a “toe-heel shifter”
on my bike. Usually to shift up a gear you have to get your toes under the
shift lever and then use your ankle to bring it up. With the new shifter I can go up a gear by
stepping on the shifter with my heel.
That will be a whole lot easier with my prosthetic leg. After that, my bike will be ready to go when
the weather cooperates, the sand is off the roads, and I’m physically ready. Hopefully that will all come together within
the next month.
I
started the dinner preparation but went to rest when Karen got home. Being at the office all day and the long day
I had on Thursday really drained my energy levels. I ended up resting for the remainder of
Friday evening.
On
Saturday, I got up and decided that I need to get back to my exercises. For the last couple of weeks, just walking
was enough; but now I was ready to work other parts of my body. I ended up doing about 75 minutes of
exercises on the floor. I was amazed
that walking has already strengthened my residual leg (stump). I was able to do bridges with my left leg
only, lifting my right leg off the floor.
I wasn’t able to do that before.
Cool!
The
rest of Saturday will be spent working on my message for Sunday morning,
getting my clothes ironed for tomorrow, taking a shower, cleaning the inside of
my truck. It is supposed to be up in the
40’s today and sunny. So I will take
some time outside to at least get the garbage out and rearrange a bit. If I still have time before dinner, I might
even open the garage door and see what kind of mess is in there. That will be another first—my wife and kids
have been out there; but I haven’t stepped foot in it since November.
Saturday
evening, Karen and I will eat dinner together and then watch a movie or
something—taking a little down time together.
Thought for the Day:
Have
you ever dreamed of winning the lottery?
You no longer have to work. You’d
have all the money that you need to pay off your debt, pay your bills, and enough
left over to indulge yourself with a few things that you always wanted but
could never afford. It sounds almost too
good to be true; and in most cases it has proven to be. Studies seem to indicate that most lottery
winners are broke and destroyed within five years of winning. Many will testify that “money doesn’t bring
happiness.” A large number of winners
end up stating, “I wish I had never won.”
But
that doesn’t stop us who haven’t yet won from dreaming of what it would be like
if we “struck it big.” In fact, we
normally look at wealthy and powerful people as being blessed by God. We envy those that seem to have all the money
that they want and need. We normally
only look at the luxury and ease in which the wealthy live and neglect to look
beyond that to see how unhappy and miserable many of those flush with cash
often are.
We
work hard our entire lives to earn a living and to just get by. Most of us run out of money before we run out
of the month; so we dream of having more wealth so that wouldn’t happen. But wealth doesn’t prevent that because we
quickly learn to spend at the level of our income.
“The
Sword of Damocles” is an ancient tale of a man in the presence of a rich and
powerful king. Damocles loudly stated
the king was very fortunate and lived a wonderful life, surrounded by luxury. The king, Dionysius, offered to trade places
with Damocles for a day to give him a taste of what having great riches and
power was really like. “Damocles quickly
and eagerly accepted the king's proposal. Damocles sat down in the king's
throne surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius arranged that a huge sword
should hang above the throne, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail.
Damocles finally begged the king that he be allowed to depart because he no
longer wanted to be so fortunate, realizing that with great fortune and power
come also great peril and anxiety” [Wikipedia—Damocles].
Getting
everything that you ever wanted leaves you dissatisfied in in the end because
you realize that money can’t buy you happiness.
There are hundreds of quips about “money can’t buy you happiness, but…” Here’s my favorite one: “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can
buy you bacon, which is almost the same thing.”
You can purchase things that distract you for a while; but eventually
you crave more and more and more; there is a thirst for more that can never be quenched. As Damocles found, wealth, luxury and power
have their own set of problems and we discover that it is just not worth the cost.
Most lottery winners claim that their
new found wealth “will never change us.”
But eventually it does; and it is rarely a change for the better.
Divorce. Greater indebtedness. Illness.
Death. Alcoholism and drug
abuse. And the list goes on.
"Not
every man can carry a full cup. Sudden elevation frequently leads to pride and
a fall. The most exacting test of all to survive is prosperity" [J. Oswald
Chambers].
One
thing that wealth and prosperity does is it insulates us from discovering our
greatest need—God Himself. If we have
stuff and a fairly comfortable life, we rarely turn to God. That is why Jesus said these words:
Matthew 19:23-26 “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I
tell you, it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who
then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With human beings this is impossible, but
with God all things are possible’” (TNIV).
Wealth gives us a false sense of security.
We feel untouchable and it seems like every one of our needs are
met. But eventually riches fade and power
transfers to someone else. “The good
life” that we achieved doesn’t last long and it quickly spoils like last week’s
leftovers in the fridge. So don’t waste
your time and energy scrambling after things that don’t last and will never
truly satisfy. Yes, we do need some
stuff, but learn to live with less and become more satisfied with what you
have. Instead of striving after more
stuff; spend your energy trying to obtain something that truly satisfies and
will last forever.
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on
earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not
destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also.”
1 Peter 1:3-4 “Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has
given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This
inheritance is kept in heaven for you…”
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