After
doing my exercises in the morning on Tuesday, I ironed a few pieces of laundry
so I had some of the “right-sized” clothing ready to wear. Then I went to work at the office.
Before
starting to ride my bike on a daily basis, I never really paid too much
attention to the wind, except when I was headed out bow hunting. Now I check out the wind speed and direction
and plan my day accordingly. Pedaling
against the wind can be hard work; going uphill and pedaling against the wind—forget
it! With as strong wind all day
yesterday, I elected to stay in town for my ride where some of the wind would
be blocked. The wind was out of the
west, but even when I rode north or south it seemed like I was riding into the
wind. I got my workout. I am stronger now so that I cover more
distance in the same amount of time. I
noticed yesterday that I had to ride up and down several streets twice to ride
a full 60 minutes. When I first started
riding, I had streets leftover at 60 minutes, now I am waving at the some
people in their yards twice. That’s a
small town!
The
appointment I had scheduled for the evening cancelled so I went into Eau Claire
to pick up some groceries we were running low on. I’ve got my shopping routine established
now. I park in a handicap spot, walk
into the store with my cane, shop while riding one of the motorized carts, then
park the cart at the door and walk back out to my truck with the
groceries. At Sam’s they have a pick-up
lane, so I park the cart near that, go get my truck, load my purchases, then go
take the motorized cart back inside. At
home, I’ve got several of those large cloth shopping bags that I use to carry
the groceries into the house. I can’t
carry that much at a time so it took me five trips to get everything inside.
I’m
feeling confident with my leg again, so yesterday I scheduled several ride
alongs with police officers during the rest of July. While I was having constant trouble with my
leg, never knowing when I would have to grab the wheelchair, I couldn’t ride
with them. I’m so thankful that I can do
that again and be more involved in the life of the department as a police
chaplain.
Thought for the Day:
“Ever since Adam blamed Eve for persuading him to eat the forbidden
fruit, and Eve blamed the serpent for getting her to eat it, impugning others
has become the normal human practice (see Genesis 3:12-13). Accusing another allows us to justify our own
sin. Our culture of blame, exemplified
by frivolous lawsuits, goes hand in hand with a sense of entitlement. We think we deserve the best and are offended
when we don’t get it. We feel outraged
at wrongs done to us—whether real or imagined.
Most fans of opposing teams watching the same sporting event believe the
referees repeatedly made unjust calls against their team.” We don’t have a good grasp “of our true
identity and situation, our assumptions of innocence and nobility, and our
consequent indictment of God for not treating us fairly” [Randy Alcorn, If God
is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil].
Haven’t every one of us been faced with a situation that we felt was
undeserved and unfair? “Why is this
happening to me!?!?” The car breaks
down, unexpected bills pile up, the kids get sick, and the company we work for
lets us go. We sometimes get a little
ticked at God for letting all of this happen to us because “after all we have
done for Him, we deserve better!”
All we need to get is a clear picture of ourselves and of our failings
for us to recognize how less than perfect we are. Warren Wiersbe in his book, “Looking Up When
Life Gets You Down” asks the question, “Has your mouth ever been stopped?” What he is getting at is moment when we stop
defending ourselves before God, when we recognize how we are at fault for many
of our own problems, when we quit boasting about our own morality, when we quit
blaming God or others for the situation that we are in. We must come to recognize that even if we believe
that we are a “good person” even our supposed goodness is shot full of holes
and in reality we really aren’t that good. It is a painful kind of “Aha!” moment that
none of us enjoy but each of us needs. In
that moment we quit complaining about everything that we think God has failed
to do in our lives and instead begin to praise Him for all the gracious and
merciful things He has done which we certainly did not deserve.
It may be hard to admit this to any other human being, but we must come
to admit this in our personal interaction with God, and in our own evaluation
of ourselves. It can be a very difficult
thing to humble ourselves before God—we are such prideful people! It is only when we come to this point where
we truly can understand how much God has done for us and how rich and full our
lives are with undeserved blessings. At
that moment we begin to develop a grateful heart and we see all the good things
in our lives instead of focusing upon the bad things.
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