Update:
My buddy, Art, and I went on a meandering 80 mile motorcycle ride
between Fall Creek and Mondovi on Monday morning. Art found some great back roads with fun twists
and curves. The weather was
perfect. We stopped at a little café in
Eleva for lunch before returning home.
I got cleaned up and then headed in for my prosthetist
appointment. Leah permanently attached a
layer of leather around the top of my foam liner since the temporary one really
seemed to make a difference in the fit of the prosthesis. Since I’ve had that in since last Thursday,
I’ve been able to walk much more each day.
That adjustment gave me the most progress than anything else we’ve tried
recently. I’m still keeping my
wheelchair close in case I need it; but I’m lasting much longer now. The top of one of my silicone liners (I have
two so I can wear them on alternate days) has been rolling up on me while I was
wearing it; that’s very irritating as you feel that bulge develop under your
pant leg. I was constantly trying to
unroll it since it is uncomfortable if you are sitting down. Leah cut off the part of the liner that was
rolling and told me to use one of our 2-liter soda bottles and put the liner on
it to stretch it out. We haven’t had any
2-liter bottles in our house for years.
I’ll have to dig one out of the trash at church.
After my appointment, I came home and took a 40 minute bike ride around
Fall Creek. I downloaded a free app for
my Droid phone which tracks your route and then gives you info like how far you
rode, what was your average speed, number of calories burned, etc. I rode 5.3 miles and burned 566
calories. The app I used is called
CycleDroid. I could hardly believe that
I rode over five miles and I didn’t even ride on every street in Fall Creek!!! Almost, but not quite.
When I came in from my ride, I got on the floor and did my exercises (push-ups,
crunches, side planks, bridges, etc.) and worked out with my weights for about
an hour. Then I folded my laundry,
ironed a few pieces of clothes and then worked on this update. Then it was time to clean up and get to bed.
On Tuesday, I have an all-day meeting in Stevens Point at our church’s
district office. Last year I rode my
motorcycle to the meeting and got caught in a terrible thunderstorm. When I finally got to one, I sat under an
overpass for 20 minutes until the rest of the storm blew over. I literally poured rain water out of my
motorcycle boots. Every bit of clothing
was completely soaked. When I finally
arrived, the A/C was on in the meeting and I froze. I started shaking so badly that they turned
the A/C off for me. On the ride home,
the sun came out and it was so hot that I dried out from the rain and then
became soaked again this time with sweat.
From one extreme to the other!
I’d really like to ride my motorcycle to the meeting but the forecast is
for scattered thunderstorms again. Last
year it was just a 10-20% chance of rain and I got several inches of it—this
year they forecast a 60% chance. I think
I’ll drive my truck this year and leave the bike parked in the garage. I wonder what it would be like having my
prosthesis filled up with rain water?
In less than 30 minutes of being in the wheelchair this morning
(Tuesday), the pain in my hip is intense.
My physiatrist says that it is caused by a tendon in my hip responding
to having my leg elevated while seated in the wheelchair. The only relief to be found is lying face
down on the floor for 5-10 minutes, this stretches out the tendon and eases the
discomfort. So far after being up for two hours, I have been driven to the
floor twice already. Some days, it is
like that!
Thought for the Day:
Timothy Keller in his book “Walking with God through Pain and Suffering”
relates the story of Russ and Sue. Sue
contracts cancer, fights through multiple rounds of treatment only to have the
cancer return each time with a vengeance.
Over and over again they undergo harsh treatments and then face even
harsher illness. Sue contracts an
illness due to the chemo and radiation treatments and ends up undergoing a
double lung transplant. Four months later signs of rejection begin. So the
doctors begin preparations for a second double-lung transplant. Through it all, Russ says, “Yet somehow, God
eases the pain, exhaustion, and anger we cannot bear anymore, and encourages us
forward.” It would be natural for Russ and Sue to become despondent and give up
hope because of what they have endured.
But their attitude stays positive.
Russ continues, “We’ve come to accept that we will not have the life of
stability and comfort we had hoped. We’ve
come to realize that we should not have been striving for stability and comfort
but for total dependence on God, from whom we draw strength. This requires a daily effort to give up all
to Him. Our real comfort is the promise
that ‘in heaven our joy will be made greater as a result of the depth of our
distress.’ We may be crippled still, but
empowered by our renewed faith. God has
helped us to persevere and that gives us hope and strength to carry on.”
Wow! Listening to Russ and Sue relate their story and learn how they
are handling it all really puts me to shame.
I have emotional meltdowns over far less; how about you? My problems are inconsequential comparatively. Their story reminds me of how we should be
responding.
The thought comes to mind, “so how do you develop such faith and
conviction?” The answer is painfully
clear. You gain it by undergoing severe
trial that takes you far, far beyond what you can cope with. As you undergo trial after trial, God finally
brings you to that place in your life. You have a choice to make about how you will
respond to this day’s distress. It is
the accumulation of those daily choices that add up to such a powerful conclusion.
So what choices are you making as you undergo whatever trials you are
currently facing?
Fill your mind with the biblical stories of God’s faithfulness during
times of distress and fill your heart with His promises of His strength and comfort. As you continue to rely upon Him day by day,
your spiritual muscles grow so that you can trust Him in bigger and bigger
things in your life. Use whatever
troubles you are currently facing and begin exercising you faith, trust and
reliance upon Him; so that in the end your spiritual strength will have
grown. The result will be that in the
day of disaster, you will be able to bear up under its load, not because of
some personal, inner strength that you possess; but because of constant use,
your relationship with God has grown so that nothing will destroy you.
In John 16:33, Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in
me you may have peace. In
this world you will have trouble. But
take heart! I have overcome the world.”
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