Update:
Thursday was a busy day. I spent
the morning writing and doing small chores around the house. In the afternoon Ruth and I went
shopping. I went to the Christian
bookstore for a while, and then we went to Sam’s and Festival Foods. I used the cane to get to the door and then
ride the motorized carts inside. At that
point I decided that I had to go to Scheel’s.
About half way through the store I ran out of energy and slowly made it
back to the truck. If I had a gas tank
it would have been on E. It is just
another reminder of how far I’ve come so far but how much further I have to go
in my recovery. On a positive note,
Scheel’s happen to have just restocked their shelves and had a few boxes of .22
Mag bullets; so I got a couple of boxes—haven’t seen that in stores for a long
time. Talk about the right place at the
right time!
Ruth and Cody unloaded the groceries while I sat and recovered for a
time. Then it was time to leave to go to
dinner before Karen’s play. The State
theatre has those long sloped aisles and I knew it would be a long hike to get
from parking into the theatre and then the decline would be hard to walk with
my prosthesis; so I brought the wheelchair to manage my energy levels
effectively.
When we brought groceries home, I had backed into the driveway to make
it easy for Ruth and Cody to unload.
After they did that, they took off to see Cody’s siblings. When I went out to leave for the restaurant
for dinner; I had to turn the truck around so that I could load my
wheelchair. I was already spent after
fighting my printer to spit out the tickets for the play I had purchased. I lost. It won. I had to call the theatre and explain that I
only had two of the five tickets that I had purchased on-line. Aargh!
I had an enjoyable dinner with the kids who could make it. And then we
went downtown. I had one of the kids
follow me because I figured parking would be tough to downtown—and it was. I was glad that I had Cody and Ruth with me
because the sidewalks downtown near the theatre are terrible. I would have had to back up and get across several
rough spots going backwards if I was alone.
I enjoyed the Easter drama. The
first act was especially strong. The
casting was excellent. I saw a number of
people I knew who attended last night.
Two more performances remain today on Good Friday. I got home and ready for bed and was very
glad when my head hit the pillow.
This morning I have to get my right—handed bow set up to shoot with my
left eye. My right eye is slowly
improving but I don’t know if my vision in it will ever be sharp enough to hunt
with again. So this morning I am heading
to the Archery shop to give right hand/left eye shooting a twirl. I am speaking at a men’s archery retreat next
weekend, so I’ve got to get my bow set up to shoot, so I can enjoy Saturday’s
events.
Early this afternoon (Friday), I get another injection in my right eye. I’ll go right to bed after that and won’t be
able to do anything until noon on Saturday at the earliest. I have a funeral of a friend’s father that I
hope to attend on Saturday afternoon.
After that I will head home and make final preparations for Easter
Sunday at church.
With my vision going wacko after the eye injection, I don’t think that
I will be in any shape to post an Update on Saturday, I always skip posting on
Sunday, so the next Update will be later on Monday because I have an early morning
medical appointment. Busy. Busy. Busy.
Thought for the Day:
Today on Good Friday, I think it is appropriate to tell you that the very
most important decision that I have ever made in my life was choosing to
believe in Jesus Christ. Let me tell you my story.
I grew up in a church going family (well at least my parents always
dropped me off at church each week so I could attend). I pursued my faith trying to get the most out
of it that I could. It just felt like I
was missing something; that there had to be something more than just attending
church and going through the rituals. I remember thinking in high school that
God felt like a pen pal to me (I had a pen pal in France during high school. We exchanged letters, audio cassettes and
small gifts). I knew a little bit ABOUT
God—but I didn’t really know HIM. I
knew from my religious background a number of facts. I knew that there was a God that had created
me. I knew that I was sinful and
deserved punishment. I knew that Jesus
was “the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world.” But I had no idea what that meant or what to
do with all the religious facts that I knew.
I took religion classes and even interviewed several clergy members that
were family friends—I was looking for more than just a casual, Sunday morning
relationship with God. I was told by
everyone I knew that I had it as good as it got. So I sort of gave up my “God Search” for a
time.
When I got married to Karen, we both felt religion was very important;
but we came from different faith traditions.
I didn’t like her church and she didn’t like mine; so we church hopped
for a while until we found one we both liked.
The people at this church were friendly and caring and they actually
read the bible and believed it. I was fascinated
by everything I was learning. I remember
thinking that these people seemed to have that something more that I had looked
for earlier in my life.
One Sunday during the
sermon, the pastor said something that really upset me. He said that we could know whether or not we
would go to heaven when we died. I
remember thinking it was an arrogant statement.
How could we know! We had to wait
until we died and then God would weigh our good deeds against our bad
deeds. If our good deeds were more—we would
go to heaven. If our bad deeds were
greater—well we were headed to hell. I
was so upset that I asked to talk to him in private. I told him what I believed and I asked him
(in none too polite of a tone) where did he get off saying those kinds of
things. He asked me to read 1 John
5:11-13.
1 John 5:11-13 “And the
witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life
is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not
have the Son of God does not have the life. 13 These things I have
written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may
know that you have eternal life.”
He asked me to read that last phrase again, “in order that you may KNOW
that you have eternal life.” Whoa! The bible said you could know right now
whether you were going to heaven or hell.
On what basis? If you “have the
Son”—you’ve got life. If you don’t have Him—you don’t.
So I asked the pastor, “How do I get the Son?” His answer was simple and direct, “You ask.” He told me to pray—to talk to God—and tell
Him all the facts that I already knew.
That He was God. That I was a
sinner. That Jesus was the Savior and
had died for MY sins. And then ask Jesus
to be MY Savior. Not just the Savior of
the world—but my personal Savior.
My pastor told me that getting to heaven wasn’t about doing the right
things and avoiding the wrong things. It
was about having a relationship with God; and that relationship was formed by
believing what the bible said about Jesus and receiving Him as my Savior (by
asking Him to do it for me individually).
It made sense to me; but I wanted to think about it some more. Sometime during the next few days I prayed as
the pastor told me and started a relationship with Jesus.
What is so cool is that I finally got what I had been searching for
during high school. God was now more
than a pen pal to me. There was
something more than just going to church and going through the rituals. I had a relationship with God and that has
made all the difference in my life!
This happened at the end of my freshman year of college way back in
1977. Since then, just like in every
other relationship, I’ve gotten to know God better. That relationship started way back then has
been the most important thing that has ever happened to me (my marriage to
Karen is a close second). It literally
has changed my life for the better. For
me Easter is a wonderful time of the year as I am reminded to what lengths God
will go to in order to establish a relationship with me. Jesus Christ died in my place, so that I
could be set free and enjoy a relationship with God Himself.
If you ever want to talk about your relationship with God, I’m willing
to listen.
I’ll close with two verses that have been very important to me since
the early days of my relationship with God:
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (TNIV)
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old
things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (NASB)
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