These five things

When you have to leave your chosen profession early because of your health, there are many challenges that come your way. Your family has a hard time with it, your finances are affected, your self-worth is in crisis, not to mention the issues of your personal well-being. Like anyone who is faced with serious life issues, I was forced to reinvent myself and decide what was most important in my future. Who am I? What would the rest of my days look like? Because of the progression of this illness I constantly have to readjust to a new normal and remain in a positive frame of mind. The illness is not currently life-threatening but it certainly has changed my life and continues to. Through this experience I have learned what is really important to me. I could list them as five areas easily: 1- My daily walk and relationship with God. I will have personal devotions every day and will seek to draw closer to him. I will make myself available to the Holy Spirit. 2- Ministry of some kind, whether large or small. I will be involved in some kind of helping ministry whether spiritual or simply helping the poor & those in need. 3- My family. This includes my loving wife of 40 years, my two sons, their wives and their children. It also includes my extended family and friends. One thing I have learned to do is become a househusband. While my wife is working I take care of the house, make the purchases, cook the food, and do what anyone else at home does. I also seek to build a close relationship with my sons and their wives and their children. I have found this a great joy. The Lord has made it possible for us to live six months out in northwest where we can be closer to one of my sons and his family. This is been a great blessing. Back in the East we are closer to our other son. 4- Art. I love to paint in acrylics and pastels. It is amazing that anybody thinks it's worth looking at or even purchasing but I don't do it for that, I do it because I love it. I would like art to be in some way a ministry but I'm not sure how that would happen. 5- Writing. Now that I am not preparing sermons every week nor devotionals, etc. I want to express myself by writing. Speaking is very different than writing. I want to learn how to write effectively. I know that involves practice and understanding the principles. So I am involved in that on a regular basis. It would do us all good to determine what is most important and pursue that in life. We probably would waste less time on those things that are not very important.

Some Personal Stuff

After almost 3 years of not adding to my blog, I have decided to begin again. During these last years a lot has happened in my life and it has taken me a while to process it. In early 2012 I felt it necessary to leave the pastoral ministry and go on disability for health reasons. I had several major surgeries that year which were supposed to help with my problems. They helped some and hurt some. That is the way it is with surgeries. God created us to be whole and complete and when we are cut into there is often some collateral damage that occurs. When doctors try to solve one problem they sometimes unwittingly create another. We also had to move and sell the home that we were living in because my salary was cut in half by this change in life. We moved into a small country home in North Carolina that I inherited from my father's family. Thankfully, my wife was able to continue working as a home health nurse. Now we are three years down the road and much more educated as to what happened to me and what the future holds. My big problem has always been my spine from my head down to my tail. Having six surgeries and many different kinds of treatment have helped in many ways and hurt in other ways. Because of this I live with daily, constant pain. But I am mindful of the many blessings that I do have in life and am thankful each day for having the opportunity to wake up and be a part of life. I have also learned that drugs that reduce pain don't really help after a while. Narcotics and other drugs are usually not meant to be taken permanently. I think I have tried all of them that are available today. They do help with breakthrough pain and extremely bad days that come but that is not where help comes for the long-term. God has made our bodies magnificent in so many ways and the more we understand our bodies, the more we can deal with the things that happened to us. Pain is governed by the brain and we can learn to deal with pain by doing things with our mind. That's one thing I am learning and I'm thankful for some understanding in that area. Even though I am not a full-time pastor I do have some involvement in ministry. I have opportunity to speak in churches from time to time and get involved in other helping organizations as much as I can. I am thankful that there are a couple of areas where God leads me to be involved and am happy to do it. Jesus Christ is still alive and well and continues to impact my life daily!