Well, here I am in the Oklahoma Heart Hospital once again........a year later..... with Monty asleep in the bed and I am up writing in my journal all that has been happening the past 48 hours. In one of my recent posts, I mentioned "remembering" and the importance God gives to that in Scripture. It is the re-membering, re-attaching a member of your past to the present.
I am remembering His faithfulness and lovingkindnesses to us a year ago when we were here for 16 days. I am remembering the sudden crash course I was getting in medical terms describing the heart and conditions and diseases of the heart and its importance to the body. I am remembering all of the love and prayers and notes and calls of many friends for weeks and weeks. I remember how uplifted and encouraged I felt in those days of his health crisis, when we did not know if he would make it through yet another heart event.
And now, after a wonderful year of his renewed strength and back-to-normal life, so to speak, we find that his heart is still quite vulnerable. The short version is that for the past few weeks he had been experiencing some shortness of breath, for which we had "natural" explanations: high altitude of Denver, severe allergy attack, etc!!! Then late Sunday night, exactly one year after his 2nd heart attack, we were in bed and he said he felt like his heart was beating really fast. I took his blood pressure and heart rate three times and we headed out for the Heart Hospital. They finally decided to admit him and we were in a room by 3:00 A.M.
He is in A-fibrillation and has high blood pressure again. They have run some tests and have been trying new meds and tweaking the ones he was on to see if they can get his rhythm back to normal and get the blood pressure under control. As of right now, 11:00 P.M. on Mar 3, 2009, we are expecting that after they run some kidney tests in the morning, they might let us go home...........at least that was what the doctor told us this morning. However, he is now running a fever and his pulse and blood pressure have gone up a bit tonight.
So, my point is this, I was sitting here working on my Bible study and the verses I had to observe were these: "But this precious treasure--this light and power that now shine within us--is held in a perishable container, that is, in our weak bodies. Everyone can see that the glorious power within must be from God and is not our own. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don't know why things happen as they do, but we don't give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. THese bodies of ours are constantly facing death just as Jesus did; so it is clear to all that it is only the living Christ within [who keeps us safe].......this gives us constant opportunity to show forth the power of Jesus Christ within our dying bodies." 2 Cor 4:7-11
Our troubles are a platform for God to display the power of His grace in humanity, in the Body of Christ.
3 comments:
this was so good, that I had to post a link to it in my blog. I hadn't written in awhile... so thanks for articulating it all so well *wink*
You have a wonderful and graceful perspective. I hope he is up and strong soon.
Jason and I spoke about just how amazing GOD has made bodies while mom was in the hospital. It is amazing how many things all work together! We just take them for granted until something goes wrong, and then you know just how important each organ, muscle, bone, etc, is and their function. We truly are "fearfully and wonderfully made"......we will be praying for Monty and you!
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