Devotions

Today marks the halfway point between my surgery and my six-week post-op – when I will hopefully be given the news that I can remove the neck brace and drive again! I will still have some physical therapy and still need to be cautious for another few months … but to sleep without a brace! Oh that will be glory!

There is nothing like hope to make the going a little easier now. While that is true for my physical wellbeing at this moment in time, it is even more true for my spiritual wellbeing.

Remember what Peter wrote about in the beginning of his first letter. “Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” [vs 3-5 HCSB]

We have a “living hope” now. It comes to us “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” It is an “inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted and unfading, kept in heaven” for us.

That inheritance is waiting for us. Nothing can touch it, steal it, destroy it. No matter how difficult or annoying the things of this life, knowing what awaits us just a little way down the road gives us a hope that we can live in now.

2Corinthians Chapter 4 is a glorious chapter. It follows the chapter about our New Covenant ministry – a glorious ministry of the Spirit rather than the fading glory of the law. It begins and ends with the admonition to never give up!

“Therefore, since we have this [New Covenant] ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give up.” [v1 HCSB]

“Therefore, we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.”  [vs 16-17 HCSB]

The goal of the enemy of our soul is to make us quit. He knows he can’t overcome us, so his tactic is to pile on the problems and discouragements so that we simply give up!

How often we hear the verses that in Christ we have the victory, that greater is the One in us than the one in the world, and that in Christ we are more than conquerors. Those verses often create images of great warfare and amazing victories over evil.

Sometimes the greatest victory is simply to stay the course. “Therefore, we do not give up!” Amen

It is 5:47 AM, Thursday morning. I have posted my daily devotions for today, checked my bank statement, and reviewed my email. I slept fitfully in this neck brace, but thankful that at least I slept! There is another blessed day ahead of me.

I opened one of my news feeds and my eyes caught on an article. “Pain and Suffering Calculator.” Well, that certainly aroused my curiosity. Turns out it links to a website for an injury lawyer.

One thing my neurosurgeon said about this spinal decompression and fusion surgery was that it had a six-month recovery period. Then he said, “Most people at six months look back and say it was all worth it.”

I remind myself of that when I am uncomfortable or experience pain now. I remind myself of that when this neck brace becomes really annoying (mostly in the middle of the night.)

I also remind myself of what Paul wrote in Romans 8:18. The Holman Christian Standard Bible titles this passage “From Groans to Glory” and it begins, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” [vs 18]

Our Christian Walk is not always easy. Submitting our will to our LORD and Master, Christ Jesus is not always the way we want to go. But there is coming a time when we will “look back and declare that it was all worth it!” Gloriously worth it!

I caught a story on the news about a new trend for seniors, Virtual Reality Companions. These are Artificial Intelligence (AI) companions for seniors designed to combat loneliness and improve emotional well-being. They offer daily companionship, health monitoring, and cognitive stimulation.

The news story featured an elderly woman who was homebound. She demonstrated having a conversation with an AI generated companion. She said it alleviated her loneliness. I wanted to cry.

Loneliness is a real problem. And often the devices created to increase the ease of communication have only served to increase our isolation.

An AI device might be able to offer a verbal companion, but it cannot give a hug, or hold a hand, or wipe away tears. Only other humans can offer that. And let us not forget that God has commanded Christians to reach out to others.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” [Romans 12:15 HCSB]

Do you know someone you need to rejoice or weep with today?  No better time to do so.

Everything leading up to this spinal decompression and fusion surgery seems to have been designed to create fear. I was sent to a Peri-Op clinic with the purpose of coordinating all my meds, docs, conditions, etc. They ordered tests and those tests prompted other tests – including a nuclear stress test.

It was finally determined that I was “OK” to go ahead with the surgery. (I did have the option to forego it if I wanted.)

A few days prior to the surgery I started to chuckle. I thought well, “I’m going ahead with the fusion. I will either wake up in pain or wake up in glory!”

As it turned out, neither happened, I simply woke up! The pain didn’t set in until the next day and only lasted a few days.

Timothy Keller said, “All death can now do to Christians is to make their lives infinitely better.”  

Or as 2 Corinthians 5:8 says: “to be absent from the body [is] to be present with the Lord.”

My mother rarely smiled. When she did it was seldom spontaneous. She smiled when a smile was an expected response. Because she rarely smiled, I made it a goal not to be like her but to smile a lot instead.

Then I met Jesus and suddenly I had a real reason to smile. It was a response to the love of God. I seldom think about smiling anymore. It simply comes naturally as a child of God.

When I woke up in the recovery room following my recent surgery, one of the nurses remarked, “She just had surgery and look at that smile!” When I got to my room, another nurse noticed that I was smiling.

Ephesians 2:8-9: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” [NLT]

Read that Scripture again! God saved you by His grace. Your salvation is a gift from God. Your salvation is not because of what you have done, accomplished or succeeded at. It is because God Loves You! Now if that doesn’t make you smile, I am not sure anything in this life will!

SMILE, GOD LOVES YOU!

I came across that old African Proverb this past week … “It takes a village to raise a child.”  That proverb has been adopted by a lot of people as a slogan. It’s been revised and used to suit the purpose of politicians, corporations, and others.

Reading it made me laugh as I admit I am also revising it … “It takes a village to get one old lady through spinal surgery!”

It has taken a husband, children and their spouses, a brother, friends, prayer warriors, and don’t forget doctors, RN’s, CNA’s and many more.

I needed (and still need) not just medical personnel, but cooks, drivers, someone to transfer clothes from washer to dryer, grocery shop, lift and pick up heavy things … the list is endless! Galatians 6:2 was in operation all around me. “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.” [NLT]

I also was reminded during these last two weeks about the “Grace to Receive.” It can be tough to “receive” when we are used to “giving.” But if no one ever asks for help – no one will ever be given the blessing that comes with “giving.”

A little while ago I highlighted part of a prayer by Max Lucado in his book “God is With You Every Day, 365 Day Devotional.” “May it never be said of my life that I almost listened and almost followed you. I will follow.”

I picked up the book once again as I am recovering and re-read that prayer. It touched me when I first read it. It touched me even more as I prayed it this morning.

I thought of some of the things I hope are never said of my life. Almost listening and almost following are certainly two of them, but there are more.

Lord, may it never be said of my life

… that I cheapened Your grace by ignoring my sin

… that I failed to acknowledge You before others

… that I failed to be grateful for Your love

… that I quenched your Holy Spirit

… that I failed to love You as I should

There are so many things that I hope are never said of my life. I pray when I finally end this journey that my life will bear fruit and leave a testimony of all that the LORD has been to me.

Acts Chapter 8 is an amazing chapter. It begins with persecution which drove the church out of Jerusalem and scattered them throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Philip (the Evangelist) was one of the men on the move. After preaching in Samaria, Philip got a message from an angel to “Go south!” There he met up with someone from Ethiopia who was on his way home.

“As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and walk along beside the carriage.’”  [Acts 8:26-29 NLT]

Divine appointment. I had a divine appointment Wednesday night in the hospital. It was a rough night, and my CNA was a young man from Georgia. He was a traveling nurse and said that Idaho was as far west as he had ever traveled.

At some point this young man found out that I was once a hospice chaplain. At my 2 AM checkup, he asked if he could talk to me. He asked if I was “religious or spiritual.” I told him I was “relational.”

Then I explained that to me religious meant rules and regulations. Spiritual could mean anything from Christianity to Buddhism to following Bubba Free John and the Way of Divine Ignorance (as my cousin did). Relational meant I had a relationship with God through Christ Jesus my LORD. I was a child of God! We talked for 30 minutes at 2 AM. At my 6 AM checkup he asked if he could hug me.

Divine Appointment, me in the hospital for a spine fusion and a traveling nurse from Georgia. God is still in the business of Divine Appointments!

I had anterior spinal decompression and fusion surgery on Tuesday, July 22. I was released from the hospital on Thursday, July 24. Initially, I did well with the few things I needed to accomplish before being released.

Because the surgery was done from the front of the throat, one of the main milestones was making sure I had the ability to swallow. I was able to eat lunch that first morning following surgery – a grilled cheese and fruit cup. That night I had cream of potato soup, fruit cup and ice cream. Wednesday was more of the same. By Wednesday night I could not swallow.

Someone forgot to tell me to stay away from bread and dairy because those two things were the worst for swallowing. That was pretty much all I ate – bread and dairy! And that resulted in a massive dose of steroids to reduce the swelling. Had I been warned, I would have made better choices.

Warnings help! That applies to our walk with the LORD also. I often hear Christians say that we no longer need to pay attention to the Old Testament. Those old Ten Commandments are outdated and irrelevant.

Granted, those old Ten Commandments cannot accomplish our salvation. Jesus alone did that. But those old Ten Commandments rightly serve as warnings of things that we need to avoid, because if we don’t, we can surely make our walk with Christ more difficult. [Exodus 20:2-17]