Sunday, January 22, 2012

Lymph Journal # 15


1/22/2012

Well it’s been a quiet, restful, and physically stable weekend.  The appetite’s been good and a few folks have dropped in to catch up.  That’s a careful, sanitize your hands at the door and are you healthy sort of drop in due to the state of my white blood count – low, that is, as expected at this point in therapy.  I do look forward to warmer days when visiting with people could include sitting outside at the Eiscafe (our local ice cream/gelato emporium closed now for the winter) where I can visit in the safety of fresh air and try hard to keep up my weight.  Geez! – “keep up my weight” – who’d have ever imagined me ever having to say such a thing.  Life does have some funny turns.

Today Carl had a friend’s birthday party to attend this afternoon I the next village over the hill from us.  I went along for the drop off ride.  It really felt like I was on release from the rest home for a Sunday drive.  You take your pleasures where you can get them, I guess.

Today our grandson Isaiah is being dedicated at Woodlawn Baptist where our son-in-law Brad works a as Youth Pastor.  Congratulations and our prayers are with you guys.  This morning I was reading in the book of Isaiah – roughly the middle 8 or 9 chapters and much of it was about Israel’s propensity to trust in stuff other than the God of Israel.  Idols – yeah, the power and protection of Egypt – why not, they’re tough customers, but God – not even crossing their minds.  They had forgotten, they had moved on to something that seemed tangibly better than the might God had shown in the past and offered them still.

It had me thinking of the gospel story (one of my favorites) of the demon-possessed man after his encounter with Jesus, after pigs briefly flew.  There he was now “dressed, in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus” and ready to do and be whatever Jesus bid him. 

The contrast between the picture painted in Isaiah and the picture painted in the Gospels got me thinking that our courage has so much to do with the realities we trust in.  I’ll go to chemo this coming week and take all the requisite (and many) pills I’m supposed to swallow but I want my courage and hope to be grounded in a greater reality than just modern medicine.

I hope Isaiah finds that too.

1 comment:

Ida-Mae said...

Thanks again, Russ. Thinking and praying for you guys so often that you were even in a dream I had last night!All our love!