Update:
I’m back!!! After not posting anything since last
Saturday (3/8) here’s the latest update.
Sunday: I arrived in Janesville, WI (200 miles) on
Sunday evening (3/9) at 7 p.m. Paul, a
25-year veteran of the Janesville PD carried my bags into the hotel and parked
the truck for me. I got registered and
settled into my room; then I became hungry and went in search of food. In Eau Claire, McDonald’s started serving
Mighty Wings again (and I love them), so I went to the local McD’s and
asked. They said they did and I went to
the next window and paid. When I got up
to the last window to pick up my food, the manager came and apologized for the
mix up; but “we no longer serve them.”
So I ended up with a salad instead L.
I decided to drive to Walmart to pick up some food since I had a fridge
and a microwave in the room and there wasn’t a restaurant in the hotel. I saw the Walmart at the first Janesville
exit as I drove into town. I got back up
on the interstate and missed the correct exit.
I had to drive an extra 10 miles to get to the next exit to turn around. When I got off the interstate, I decided to
fill up on gas. I figured if I parked
with the pump midway between my door and the gas cap, I should be able to reach
it without too much trouble. I rolled
down both windows on that side so I had something to hang onto; and it
worked!!! I only had to make one or two
hops and I filled up the gas by myself. By
the time I got back in town, I was too tired to shop so I just went back to my
room.
I had a handicap room reserved which meant that I had a bathroom that
was a big as my bedroom at home. There
was lots of space in there with a zero entry shower. Nice! Unfortunately they had a lot of furniture
stuffed into the rest of the room so I had a hard time getting turned around
and kept getting stuck between the bed and the office chair, etc. But the bed was the most comfortable mattress
I have ever slept on. And I slept very
well each night.
Monday (3/10): There was a complimentary breakfast at the
hotel. They had a “Breakfast Hostess”
who got me a place to sit at the table, filled my plate with eggs and bacon and
kept checking on me all the time.
Several of us commented on the fact that she had the perfect personality
for that job; she was sunny, bright and warm with a happy voice. Each morning as she saw me roll in, she
filled a plate for me and got me settled in with a cheerful attitude.
One bad thing about the hotel is that it had plush carpeting. That is nice to walk on since it is very soft
on the feet; but it makes pushing a wheelchair a very strenuous exercise. Of course the conference area was down a long
hall from my room. I certainly got my upper
body workout as I went back and forth at least five times a day. My muscles are still sore and stiff from all
the work.
I went out shopping at lunch and easily got to Walmart this time. When I came back to the hotel, I looked
around for an empty handicap spot since I have to have several feet access on
the driver’s side to load and unload the chair.
I found a spot that was out of the way and was clearly marked with hash
lines to indicate no parking next to me.
Later when I came out to the truck to go somewhere, someone had parked on
the hash marks within a foot of my truck on the driver’s side. I guess they didn’t see the handicap sign or
markings. I had to go back inside the
building and find someone to move my truck for me so I could get in.
Monday evening there was a mixer held at a restaurant next door, Quaker
Steak & Lube. It looked like a nice oil
change place on the outside. They had cool decor and great wings on the inside. There is a corvette hanging on the wall in
one room and several motorcycles scattered around the place. Check out the
picture of me being a superhero! They say that during an emergency your
adrenaline kicks in and you become very strong.
Ha! Ha! Actually, when I first
sat down, I never noticed the car hanging there. I had to go to the bathroom and I saw the
wide space with no table and chairs so I rolled down it. About half way through I looked up and just
inches above my head was the car. How
could I have missed that before?
Besides about 160 chaplains from across a five state region, there were
police liaison officers and even a few police chiefs attending. I met a police chief at the mixer. I think he was from Gary, Indiana. He said he had been a cop in Chicago for over
30 years so he retired and then moved to Gary where he became the chief of
police. I was thinking that Gary was a
sizeable town so I asked how many officers were in the PD. The number he told me was 130. Wow! That’s retirement? He said, “Well compared to working in Chicago
with over 12,000 sworn officers, my department is really small!” Okay, Chief.
More power to you. Thanks for
your years of service.
On Tuesday night, we held a
banquet. For entertainment there was a
30 member Barbershop group who sang great harmonies! The speaker for the evening was Chris Prochut,
the former Commander of the Bolingbrook, IL police force. Do you remember the Drew Peterson case? He was a Bolingbrook police officer convicted
of killing his third wife and suspected of killing his fourth wife. Chris was in charge of the department at the
time of Peterson’s arrest and trial. He
said it was an awful time because the media hounded everyone and Drew was a
good friend to many on the force. It was
very devastating. Chris ended up with
severe depression and became suicidal.
His own officers took him in for psychological evaluation. For a police officer this effectively ends
his career, because of the psych record, his gun is taken away and he can no
longer be a cop. Chris now heads up a
police officer suicide prevention program.
There are more officers who commit suicide each year than there are Line
of Duty deaths. It is a sad finish to a
life of service—please pray for those who wear a badge.
The conference was great. I am
glad that I went. I gained a lot of
insight into chaplaincy and pastoral ministry.
At the conference there were two boys who were always around to
help. They were home schooled and I
would often see them studying or busily engaged in something (their dad was
helping run the conference). I asked the
older boy, probably 13 years old, what he was reading. It was a book on memorization
techniques. He showed me a paper with
the number of Pi carried out to 1,000 digits that he was memorizing. I asked how he was doing. He said that so far he had it memorized out
to 50 digits, but by next Monday he hoped to have the first 400 digits
memorized!!!! Ow! Just thinking about
that hurts my old man brain!
Wednesday afternoon I headed
home to Fall Creek. I got sleepy driving home.
So I kept turning the music up louder—it didn’t help. So I rolled the windows down part way. Better cold than to run off the road. Music used to keep me awake. Then I realized that since my hospitalization
in November I have been going to sleep and sleeping through the night with
headphones on listening to music. My
body probably assumed it was nap time every time I turned on the radio!
I ended up driving straight into Eau Claire and ate dinner with my
sons, Jon and David, and David’s wife Amelia before arriving home about 8
p.m. After getting into the house, I was
so happy to roll around on hardwood floors and not be on carpeting; but I miss
the big bathroom!
I’m struggling with my liner causing an incessant itch on the back of
my thigh. My prosthetist and I have been
trading emails back and forth on the problem.
She gave me several new ideas to try.
I’d appreciate your prayers that one of them will work.
Thought for the Day:
I’ve just started reading the classic book, “Don’t Sweat the Small
Stuff… And It’s All Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson. I haven’t read past the introduction yet but
what he says rings true. “We fail to
recognize that the way we relate to our problems has a lot to do with how
quickly and efficiently we solve them… when you learn the habit of responding
to life with more ease, the problems that seemed ‘insurmountable’ will begin to seem more
manageable.”
I can certainly relate to that.
I can get all worked up over the smallest thing that has gone wrong and
it will ruin my outlook for the rest of the day or for the week. But if I stop and put it all into
perspective, that it is actually a small irritant that really doesn’t matter in
the long run--it will be okay.
Here’s a personal example. As a
pastor, Sunday morning service is a big deal to me. When there are glitches in sound system or the
PowerPoint slides don’t get changed on time while we are singing it used to
really bother me. I would get so
frustrated by the glitches that I couldn’t worship anymore. My attitude was “these mistakes are ruining
the attitude of worship!” In reality
worship wasn’t ruined by the glitches. I
ruined worship for myself as I focused so much on those little slips instead of
focusing my heart upon God. In this
example, I was holding our AV Techs up to a higher standard than I myself can
live at. All I wanted from them was
perfection!!! Is that too much to ask
for one hour on Sunday morning? Why, yes
it is, Steve. I don’t speak with
perfection during my message. I stumble
and mumble my words. I use wrong grammar
(Wink. Wink.). I sometimes misspeak or
misquote someone. So if I cannot live up
to the standard of perfection myself, why do I think others should be able to
and be judged according to that standard?
I’ve mentally made their mistake into a big deal. Carlson says, “We overreact, blow things out
of proportion, hold on too tightly, and focus on the negative aspects of life.” He goes on to say that our reaction
immobilizes us and makes it difficult if not impossible to solve our
problems. Our overreactions “actually
get in the way of getting what we want.”
I’ve seen this to be true in my life and I’m seeking to change my
attitude and my response to life’s imperfections. I am happy to report that I am seeing
improvement (but not perfection) in this area.
I’d still like things to go well during our morning worship and
encourage everyone involved to strive for excellence; but I am no longer
expecting perfection and not allowing myself to be distracted from worship by
the glitches that do occur.
Stop a moment and consider your own reactions. How are you doing in this area? I can hear an objection already, “but the
stuff I am worked up over IS actually big stuff.” As a Christian, I believe that there is no
bigger thing than worship. Most of the
things we get worked up over are big in our eyes; but probably really are not so
large on the cosmic scale of things.
Let go. Relax. Keep things in perspective. Those words are easier said than done; but are
well worth striving towards. I hope you
join me in taking this next step in my journey through life. Let’s not sweat
the small stuff…and remember that it is all small stuff.
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