Well as most of you probably know by now, Barb and I are parked and comfortably taking up residence in beautiful downtown Dewey, Arizona up in the mountains of Arizona where the temperature never reaches 100 degrees. The coach air conditioner works rather well up here and we "love it!" Oh sure, we miss the kids and grand kids but they are a mere 75 miles away, just an hours drive from here anytime we need our fill of our family.
Tonight we got a chance to share dinner with Med and Gail, Barb's sister and brother-in-law and we had a wonderful time together being able to walk out in the city without the aid of any inhalers or SVN machines to help breathe this beautiful clean air.
And as we drove back to our new residence I noticed that we could actually see the stars in the sky and I noticed them "twinkling" in the sky and it made me think of our Lord and how He was up there helping us live our lives here. What a beautiful site it is just to be able to see something in the sky besides smog.
I went to bed and put on my headphones as I normally do and tonight decided to listed to an old Eagles album on my ipod and I came to a song called "Life in the fast lane" and it drew my attention to our lives. We all live "in the fast lane" and sometimes we have to or we get left behind in life. And sometimes it causes us to miss some things that should be more precious to us than trying to get some adrenaline out of every moment of these lives. For instance, I looked on Face Book earlier tonight and notice that my son wrote that he had a "bad tennis" day today. I didn't think much of it until I sat down here to write and thought, "well, at least he had a tennis day." So some of his day was good even if he was "off" of his game.
Then, naturally because I could not fall asleep, God prompted me to get up and read from His Word. I came across 2 Thessalonians 5:16,17, & 18 which simply say "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (NASB).
Well I thought about those verses and wondered how I fit into Paul's instruction: I mostly rejoice (some may think I complain alot but I mostly rejoice in life). I don't find that I "pray without ceasing" but I seem to be in a constant state of communication with the Lord over life in general. And I think that there are VERY FEW things that I do NOT give thanks for. I know I wasn't really rejoicing when our 5th wheel had a flat tire and we were out of state. I didn't jump up and down when it was necessary to travel to Wal-Mart twice to fix a leak in the tank lines today and I certainly don't remember thanking God for the money that was available to get that line fixed. But now that I think back on the day, it was pretty rejoicing, enjoyable and pleasant to visit with family.
So some days we DO INDEED, "live in the fast lane" and it is at times, difficult to slow down long enough to give God glory even when all the air is out of the tire. But I did have a great day and I think Brad, my son, even though he was not "on his game" rejoiced in the opportunity to take some time away from a busy work schedule to get some tennis in.
Verse 21 says "But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good..." and that, we try very hard to do. The oncologist office called yesterday and it seems that a blood test (called an M-spike test) came back too high and he wants to discuss it with me so now we have to go down the hill next week to see about that problem. Seems that the M-spike test is a measure of the cancer, possibly, "sticking it's ugly head up" for a look around and I'm sure he just wants to stay ahead of it. "Rejoice always!" Okay, I'm very thankful that he found that so we could discuss my options and continue praying without ceasing while I am thankful that there are tests like this to keep my health in line. Boy, some of these instructions are hard to carry out. I don't want to go to the doctor, I don't want to have more tests, I don't want to go through chemotherapy again, but I thank God that He is in control and not me.
"Life in the fast lane" sometimes slaps us right in the face and of course, another line in the song is "surely you could lose your mind".
So where am I going with this or am I just rambling because I can't sleep? Well actually I got up to tell all of you that I am "Rejoicing always; praying without ceasing; and giving thanks in everything for this is God's will for ME in Christ Jesus!" Will the strength of your faith allow you to say that tonight?
Dave
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