I sent the March 16 blog post to the guys in an accountability group I attend. Afterward, a friend commented to me on the imagery of a bug splattered on a windshield locomotive. Well, it just seemed natural, given the large number of locomotives in the world and the even larger number of bugs.
I finished my third chemotherapy treatment six days ago. (I've got three more to go.) I've been pretty washed out since then, but hopefully things are turning around. This post may not be long, as I've got to go upstairs and catch a nap.
Paul Rudy's surgery, which I mentioned in the March 10 post, was successful in removing all the cancer. That is a huge blessing! But just a day before he underwent surgery, a family in his church with an eight-year old son named Jacob got very bad news. Jacob had been diagnosed more than a year earlier with a very aggressive cancer, neuroblastoma, but treatment had apparently gotten rid of it. However--recent tests showed it's come back. We need to pray for him and his family. His Mom and Dad are named Florita and Harry, and he has two younger siblings.
My church is beginning a small-group ministry in just a couple of weeks. I am heading a men's accountability group modeled on Ouija Sink's group at Redeemer Presbyterian in Winston-Salem. Ouija's group, called simply TMAG (Tuesday Men's Accountability Group) has worked tremendous progress in the lives of a number of men struggling with both heterosexual and homosexual sin. I was a charter member in July of 2003, and it has enabled me to get a handle on an addiction to heterosexual pornography and lust. I am praying very hard that we will be able to pass that blessing on to others in a new setting, while at the same time mourning the pending loss of some friendships I hold very dear.
Time to sign off. See you later!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
March 16
Okay, that's more like it. Six days from the last post. If you recall, I gave myself permission to write. Now I'm using it.
Two updates. Rhonda Dering, whom many of you know, went home last week. Sometimes I am conflicted about how to pray, but in her case, it became obvious that God was not going to prolong her time on earth. And so I prayed that she would have grace to cross the river. God answered that prayer, and today she is with Jesus, seeing unimaginable sights. Her funeral is Saturday, March 21.
The other update has to do with my brother-in-law, Paul Rudy, a minister in southeastern Wisconsin. I and a lot of other people prayed very hard for him during his surgery last Friday, and it appears God has given us the answer we were looking for, though we won't know for sure until the pathology reports come back this week. He was full of quips afterwards. When my sister told him they had to take part of his colon along with everything else, he said "Well, now I've got a semi-colon."
One more update. It does look as though God is working out the schedule change conundrum I referred to last week, where I was getting shortchanged by not being able to take a nap in the morning. Last week I really did do better on getting by with, say, nine hours sleep at night and no naps. It is problematical, though, when you have to pee four times a night, which I do, because if your mind runs off on some tangent when you lie back down, you might not go back to sleep. That actually happened, Friday night, costing me at least four hours sleep, and impacting me right into Sunday. (It was a little embarrassing to have to tell my pastor that I fell asleep during his sermon and could he please repeat the main points, but retrieving one of his sermons is worth some embarrassment.)
Now for a little more from the quiet time "research lab." As you might remember, a few months ago on this blog I posted a devotional I had written about quiet times in which I suggested we stop having them. Actually, I suggested we stop having them just to show off. I didn't really mean we shouldn't have quiet time. After all, God's children need to grow, and you won't grow if you don't eat.
But even if we are committed to "doing" time with God for the right reasons, as I mentioned last week, it's still very easy to slip back into the wrong motivation. That is part of our struggle as humans. Satan is always sliding that noxious vapor of self-righteousness under our bedroom door, and we need the gas mask of the gospel to filter out his poison.
But the more you humbly and conscientiously persist at quiet time, the more things begin to change. God slowly but consistently forms your character with every step you take in the right direction, and eventually you find yourself playing in a higher league. You move closer to the place where you actually enjoy getting out of bed because you know whom you'll find when you do get your lazy bones moving--none other than God himself.
In my case, when I first consciously dedicated myself to quiet time, I would begin by dressing, then going downstairs and doing a couple of little things that really needed doing, i.e., feeding the dogs and changing the cat litter box. Then I would sit down and read my Bible. But by that point, to use Will Rogers' memorable phrase, the "new had already gotten rubbed off" the day, and though I still could get caught up in the Biblical narrative, by the time I got around to praying, things were getting a little arid.
So now I simply drop to my knees the minute I get out of bed. I've got a prayer list I keep on my bedstand, and moving that the two feet to my bed is all I've got to do to start. After fifteen minutes of praying, it's time to do the chores, quickly; and then I read. That's my routine, anyway. I'm sure yours might be different.
All this, by the way, from a man who is definitely not a morning person. But I do quiet time first thing in the morning for one simple reason--my mind is still uncluttered. The minute you eat breakfast and start thinking about what you have to do next, the day roars into your brain like a mile-long Union Pacific freight train. And then, of course, any hope of having quiet time is splattered like a dead bug all over the windshield of the locomotive.
So there you have it--our weekly "Quiet Time Research Lab 101." Let me know if you've got some research you'd like to share with me. Have a good week!
Two updates. Rhonda Dering, whom many of you know, went home last week. Sometimes I am conflicted about how to pray, but in her case, it became obvious that God was not going to prolong her time on earth. And so I prayed that she would have grace to cross the river. God answered that prayer, and today she is with Jesus, seeing unimaginable sights. Her funeral is Saturday, March 21.
The other update has to do with my brother-in-law, Paul Rudy, a minister in southeastern Wisconsin. I and a lot of other people prayed very hard for him during his surgery last Friday, and it appears God has given us the answer we were looking for, though we won't know for sure until the pathology reports come back this week. He was full of quips afterwards. When my sister told him they had to take part of his colon along with everything else, he said "Well, now I've got a semi-colon."
One more update. It does look as though God is working out the schedule change conundrum I referred to last week, where I was getting shortchanged by not being able to take a nap in the morning. Last week I really did do better on getting by with, say, nine hours sleep at night and no naps. It is problematical, though, when you have to pee four times a night, which I do, because if your mind runs off on some tangent when you lie back down, you might not go back to sleep. That actually happened, Friday night, costing me at least four hours sleep, and impacting me right into Sunday. (It was a little embarrassing to have to tell my pastor that I fell asleep during his sermon and could he please repeat the main points, but retrieving one of his sermons is worth some embarrassment.)
Now for a little more from the quiet time "research lab." As you might remember, a few months ago on this blog I posted a devotional I had written about quiet times in which I suggested we stop having them. Actually, I suggested we stop having them just to show off. I didn't really mean we shouldn't have quiet time. After all, God's children need to grow, and you won't grow if you don't eat.
But even if we are committed to "doing" time with God for the right reasons, as I mentioned last week, it's still very easy to slip back into the wrong motivation. That is part of our struggle as humans. Satan is always sliding that noxious vapor of self-righteousness under our bedroom door, and we need the gas mask of the gospel to filter out his poison.
But the more you humbly and conscientiously persist at quiet time, the more things begin to change. God slowly but consistently forms your character with every step you take in the right direction, and eventually you find yourself playing in a higher league. You move closer to the place where you actually enjoy getting out of bed because you know whom you'll find when you do get your lazy bones moving--none other than God himself.
In my case, when I first consciously dedicated myself to quiet time, I would begin by dressing, then going downstairs and doing a couple of little things that really needed doing, i.e., feeding the dogs and changing the cat litter box. Then I would sit down and read my Bible. But by that point, to use Will Rogers' memorable phrase, the "new had already gotten rubbed off" the day, and though I still could get caught up in the Biblical narrative, by the time I got around to praying, things were getting a little arid.
So now I simply drop to my knees the minute I get out of bed. I've got a prayer list I keep on my bedstand, and moving that the two feet to my bed is all I've got to do to start. After fifteen minutes of praying, it's time to do the chores, quickly; and then I read. That's my routine, anyway. I'm sure yours might be different.
All this, by the way, from a man who is definitely not a morning person. But I do quiet time first thing in the morning for one simple reason--my mind is still uncluttered. The minute you eat breakfast and start thinking about what you have to do next, the day roars into your brain like a mile-long Union Pacific freight train. And then, of course, any hope of having quiet time is splattered like a dead bug all over the windshield of the locomotive.
So there you have it--our weekly "Quiet Time Research Lab 101." Let me know if you've got some research you'd like to share with me. Have a good week!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
March 10
February 17 to March 10--I've really got to get with the program. I keep thinking about all these other things I've got to do--that's a recipe for disaster. I am covenanting with myself and with God, right now, to write more often. Writing is one of my gifts, part of my mission in life. So I give myself permission to do it.
I have been having my quiet times and have been learning many things, among them how easy it is to be with the program and yet not with it. That is to say, to have your mouth and your body in the right place but for your heart to be somewhere far away. That can happen without even knowing it.
But the lesson of the Scripture I've been reading is that even when your heart is in the wrong place, God is still faithful. I've been reading about Abraham, the father of the faithful, and it strikes me that there were times his heart was definitely not in the right place, times where his heart was depressed and fearful and weak and foolish and totally out of joint. And yet God worked in his life, and not only in his life but in the life of every believer since then. God has his purposes and he will accomplish them, no matter how weak and sinful the vessels he is using.
I was lying in bed this morning struggling with many things, and it occurred to me the only answer is to believe--that God is alive and is working and will accomplish what he wants to accomplish in my life. And so I made a conscious commitment to believe that. (And I got out of bed.!)
As regards the medical situation, the five hours of light duty continue, but at a different venue and at different hours. I've moved from Archdale back to High Point, and my hours have changed from morning to afternoon. On a morning schedule, I could come home and nap in the afternoon. An afternoon schedule, however, is more challenging, since when I get home, at six, it is too late to nap. And when I do get home, Alison often has homework she needs help with, and I am generally too tired to be of much use. I am still looking for a way around this conundrum, but I know God has one.
I am getting ready to start my third month's worth of chemotherapy--one week a month, from January till June, is the schedule. I still fatigue easily. I got up yesterday at 7:30, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and was out of gas by 12:45. That's typical, which makes me wonder when I will ever be able to work fulltime. At the rate I'm using it, I run out of sick leave near the end of April. I do have a bunch of annual leave, but I don't really want to use that.
But those are all questions God can deal with. He has not let me down yet, and I don't expect him to do it anytime soon.
I hope you will excuse me--I just got back from watching the north-bound Cotton Grove local on the Winston-Salem Southbound Railroad, which runs about two hundred yards from my house. This economy has really affected traffic, but they still need an engine to pull the thing, and locomotives have always fascinated me. This one was an SD 60, which packs 3600 horsepower. Quite a bit more than was needed for seven cars, I might add.
One last item--please pray for my brother-in-law, Paul Rudy, a loving minister of the gospel in SE Wisconsin. He is having surgery on Friday to remove a tumor that is growing in four different internal organs, including his stomach, and if this surgery does not work he won't live long. He has a wife (my sister) and three daughters, college-aged to junior high. The surgery starts at 9:30 EDT.
You know what I'll be doing then!
I have been having my quiet times and have been learning many things, among them how easy it is to be with the program and yet not with it. That is to say, to have your mouth and your body in the right place but for your heart to be somewhere far away. That can happen without even knowing it.
But the lesson of the Scripture I've been reading is that even when your heart is in the wrong place, God is still faithful. I've been reading about Abraham, the father of the faithful, and it strikes me that there were times his heart was definitely not in the right place, times where his heart was depressed and fearful and weak and foolish and totally out of joint. And yet God worked in his life, and not only in his life but in the life of every believer since then. God has his purposes and he will accomplish them, no matter how weak and sinful the vessels he is using.
I was lying in bed this morning struggling with many things, and it occurred to me the only answer is to believe--that God is alive and is working and will accomplish what he wants to accomplish in my life. And so I made a conscious commitment to believe that. (And I got out of bed.!)
As regards the medical situation, the five hours of light duty continue, but at a different venue and at different hours. I've moved from Archdale back to High Point, and my hours have changed from morning to afternoon. On a morning schedule, I could come home and nap in the afternoon. An afternoon schedule, however, is more challenging, since when I get home, at six, it is too late to nap. And when I do get home, Alison often has homework she needs help with, and I am generally too tired to be of much use. I am still looking for a way around this conundrum, but I know God has one.
I am getting ready to start my third month's worth of chemotherapy--one week a month, from January till June, is the schedule. I still fatigue easily. I got up yesterday at 7:30, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and was out of gas by 12:45. That's typical, which makes me wonder when I will ever be able to work fulltime. At the rate I'm using it, I run out of sick leave near the end of April. I do have a bunch of annual leave, but I don't really want to use that.
But those are all questions God can deal with. He has not let me down yet, and I don't expect him to do it anytime soon.
I hope you will excuse me--I just got back from watching the north-bound Cotton Grove local on the Winston-Salem Southbound Railroad, which runs about two hundred yards from my house. This economy has really affected traffic, but they still need an engine to pull the thing, and locomotives have always fascinated me. This one was an SD 60, which packs 3600 horsepower. Quite a bit more than was needed for seven cars, I might add.
One last item--please pray for my brother-in-law, Paul Rudy, a loving minister of the gospel in SE Wisconsin. He is having surgery on Friday to remove a tumor that is growing in four different internal organs, including his stomach, and if this surgery does not work he won't live long. He has a wife (my sister) and three daughters, college-aged to junior high. The surgery starts at 9:30 EDT.
You know what I'll be doing then!
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