Back to the Grind

Well it was back to work for me today. I am so blessed to have a great job. I got pretty caught up today which was also a blessing. I was researching disability and what not since I’ll have to be out of work for pretty much 8 solid weeks. Again this is another testimony to God’s greatness. So historically I don’t take much vacation – only about 2 full weeks a year (one for a beach trip and one for Christmas) with some other days here and there. So every year I’ve had a few vacation days leftover and they carry over to the next year. Policy is to allow one full year’s worth of vacation to carry over and this year I’m actually right at that limit. So what I’m trying to say is that I have an abundance of vacation days that I was actually at risk of losing this year because I didn’t know how I was going to use them. But now I see that God has actually been working the past 6 years to allow me to have all of the vacation days stored up for such a time as this. Some would say that it is a coincidence, but I know that God works all things together for his good and this is just one more of those little things. :)

Renewed Youth

Man, I love our choir. What a great morning. So many in the choir asked us for the latest update. Several gave us papers with scriptures written on them for encouragement. It is so refreshing to again experience the love and support of fellow believers who truly love us and who have life experiences that they can share with us. God moves mightily through his people.

 Psalm 103: 1-5 says: Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

MB in the choir gave that passage to my wife this morning and said, “look – it says he heals ALL your diseases”.  When my wife shared that with me it just touched me so much. How amazing our God is.

It is getting hard at times to explain the latest status to those who may not have the whole story of what has happened this past week. It can get quite complicated when you get into the pancreas, kidney, spleen explanation and the whole caveat that we don’t know for sure if it is cancer or it is possible that they won’t have to take the pancreas or spleen, yada, yada. I feel like a machine sometimes just spouting a pre-recorded message because I’ve said it so much. My wife was reading another book that gave a synopsis of 2 Kings 4: 8-37. The very very short version is that Elisha promised a man and woman that they would have a child the following year. They did and then the child dies. Because of her faith in the Lord, the woman lies her son on a bed and calls for her husband and asks for a servant and a donkey so she could “go to the man of God quickly and return” (2 Kings 4:22). No mention is made of her crying or getting upset or even of her telling her husband what has happened. She merely says it will be “all right” and then she goes to find Elisha.

So my wife an I have decided that this will be our new motto. Whenever someone asks how it’s going or what’s the news we will always first say it is “all right”. As was mentioned in church this morning – no need to bore people with our complaining or to burden them with our problems anyway. Those who want to know more always push for more and we are more than happy to share all that we can with them. But for many, it is good enough to know that things are “all right”.