Yearly Archives: 2015

A large part of diagnosis is testing and checking and asking and listening.  Today I continue with testing.  My doctor has been following my progress over the past few months – I had an undiagnosed tiredness, cough, stomach problems and who knows what else.

We began with the simple bloodwork, an xray and ultrasound and today I will get a Holtor monitor to check my heart.  Family genetics play a part.  We have heart problems and cancer in the background.

Better to work through elimination than through surprise – I’m thankful for preventative medicine.

When I began my ministry, one of the greatest desires was to serve others.  I had been typed in various surveys and inventories as one who shows mercy, organizes and leads.

The biggest problem with this?  A martyr complex can arise.  A sense of indispensability overcomes common sense.  The pull to burn out is way too easy.

In this last while I have been working on taking rest days! 

I used to think one day of rest was sufficient (and perhaps in my twenties this was true).  I did read in the Bible that priests were good to go hard at their work until they were 50.  At that point they became the gatekeepers for the building (OK, that’s a little simplified, but the carries the basic idea).  There was a recognition that the hard work was too much for an “older” person. 

And now I find that one day of rest is a good start, two days are better.  And so, two days at home doing something other than work has been good for me.

An article on our fame-shame culture struck me recently.  I’m still looking through it (in the latest issue of Christianity Today – Andy Crouch).

For a long time our society worked off the idea that what was right was what we should do.  Our laws governed our land.  As other cultures have continued to enter our land, our laws changed.  And we even run different laws in different parts of the country, or related to different cultural groups.

So, what really is governing our land.  The authority no longer seems to be in the hands of the laws makers, but more in the judgments of those who make the exceptions to the laws.

If the law is not longer the standard, then another “law” must prevail.  I would tend to think that the new law, when best administered, is grace.  When poorly and inappropriately used, this new law shames people into obedience.

The start of some thoughts.

In 2005 I was challenged to write a blog.  Blogs were just beginning to be popular, and many were writing but few were sticking.  I decided to write a blog only if I kept it up.

These past few months have seen me re-evaluate many areas of my life.  I’m looking into the final sprint, where my strength will be weaker and my dreams greater. 

Coming to the end of years does not mean coming to the end of days.  The reality is that what can be accomplished must be measured.

And so, I’ve been living in reality as colds, flu, hopes, emotions and sick days bring a close consciousness to my mind and body.

I hope in the next while to relate some of the thoughts of these missing months in this blog.  Perhaps I’m not alone!