Tag: His outcome not mine

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There are gifts and then there are Gifts

A while ago, I paraphrased Isaiah 43:1,2 as they were balm to my soul as I recovered from Guillain Barre. “But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Michael.  he who formed you and created you to be His. Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the adversity that challenges you,  I will be with you; and when you pass through weakness and discouragement, You will not be overcome. As you struggle with infirmities, you will not be devastated. I will protect you and lift you up.” 

This verse came to mind again this week as we celebrated Christmas. I have indeed passed through a time of real adversity and know without a doubt that God was with me in the midst of the challenge which time and time kept me from discouragement. What does this have to do with Christmas? It is certainly not just the stockings hung from the mantle with care.

Many know that the Advent season focuses on expectation and think that it serves as an anticipation of Christ’s birth in the season leading up to Christmas. I think this is why Advent this year brought new meaning for me. You see, I had my own season of waiting in anticipation that I would one day move again. Jesus came saying He would become like light in the darkness. I felt His presence as well while I went through the dark time of waiting on being able to move again much less walking out of rehab two months ahead of schedule on April 25th, 2019.

So this Advent season, I waited with expectation because I was filled with joy and gratitude that like Jesus being born on Christmas, my Lord showed up in my life as He did for all of us more than 2000 years ago. Therefore, it was not about the gifts that were opened but the love that each gift represented for me. You see, I am grateful for the gift of slowly but surely getting better. The good news is my PT says she will get me back to 100%. The bad news is I will still be 67 and not 40 🙂 Therefore, the gift I am trying to give to my wife, kids, and grandkids is me being the best me I can be spiritually and physically. That way, I hope to be a person of encouragement to those around me for as long as the Lord allows. Being a light for those who are facing adversities in their own lives. My verse for 2020 will be 2 Corinthians 1:3,4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,  who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ” I hope in some way I this blog post has done that for some of you so like Jesus, we can all carry the light into this world.

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What’s next?

Phillippians 3:13,14 “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.” As I lay in my bed day after day not being able to move, this verse took on new meaning for me. I can not explain why but as I have shared before, I did not focus on “why Guillain Barre had happened to me” but instead “what do I need to do to get better?” I also felt very strongly that I wanted to be obedient to God’s heavenly calling by showing my trust in Him to those that cared for me, came along side and supported us, or just came to visit. Dan Allender talks about making a chose when calamity occurs. “Will you allow it to break you or lift you up?” I chose to look at the positive by seeing how God could use it for good in my life as well as being an example for those who were watching how we would handle this ordeal. I read somewhere about the opportunity to turn “a mess into a message” I wanted that to be what people saw in me. In a Jon Gordon podcast, I heard that after the UVA basketball team lost to UMBC in the 1st round of the NCAA basketball tourney, head coach Tony Bennett’s wife encouraged him in the strangest way. She said, “God has given you the privilege to suffer and experience adversity so that you can show that your faith is real and what defines you whether things are good or bad”. I wanted to be a reflection of the passage in James, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” My goal became turning the mess called Guillain Barre Syndrome into a message. Therefore…..

Dottie and I made the conscious decision to stay in the moment choosing the attitude of let’s not get ahead of ourselves but instead focus on What’s Next? We did not google GBS because we didn’t want to have worst case scenarios in our mind. The Doctor asked us how much we wanted to know and we said, “just what we need to know now.” That way we could deal the current circumstance and then ask what needs to be done now to move us forward in recovery. Noone really told us but we just felt it best not to dwell on how long it would be before I could move or when I might be able to go home. This decision served us well whether we found ourselves discouraged or when we could see signs of improvement. It kept us in the moment. Grateful for the slightest movement, passing the regular respiratory tests, better sleep, uplifting visits from friends, etc. It also kept us focused on the tough days knowing that if we kept doing what the medical staff said was next, things were going to get better. This attitude is the reason for this blog’s title. We became Thankful in all Things because we believed God was with us, loved us, and that He was in control of what was next for us. We committed my health and recovery to God and clinged to the promises of Hebrews 13:5 and Romans 8:28, ” He will never leave us and will make good out of every situation.”