Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: BLESSED (03/07/19)
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TITLE: Rollin' with my Rock | Previous Challenge Entry
By LINDA GERMAIN
03/14/19 -
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Historically, gout sufferers were thought to be mostly over-weight men who eat red meat and overly rich foods. The other misconception implies that the hateful ambush can be age-related. I know an audiology doctor who is a lovely female. She had an attack of gout in her twenties and traced its possible cause to some weird kind of Asparagus overload. Imagine that! Female, young, and a fancy green vegetable just don’t fit the textbook picture.
A few years ago, a storm of sudden unrelenting foot pain blew in and stunned me. I was convinced I had a stress fracture. Denial is not just a river in Egypt!
In six months, it happened again, but this time it was the other foot. By then, I had some exorbitantly expensive medicine standing by to trounce the uric acid crystals. I don’t even like red meat. Why was this happening?
How, I wondered, could a person possibly stand to have it in both feet at the same time? Six weeks ago I got my answer. There is NO standing.
In the middle of the night, the excruciating double-punch attack hit like a bolt of lightning. To carry on the storm theme, I was seriously up the river without a paddle…and possibly without a canoe!
That brings me to the untold blessings that have come out of this agonizing month and a half of struggle to be upright again. The first night I hollered until daybreak. No police showed up to check if possibly someone was pummeling me. Just as well, I couldn’t have opened the door.
Somehow, with constant prayer, tears, and God’s grace, I was able to get into a wheelchair that a relative had used.
The means to roll from room to room was another blessing for which I thanked the Lord many times a day. This house has hardwood floors, a blessing which allowed me to maneuver my new chariot with ease. After a couple of days of practice and a run-in with the cat, I got pretty skillful at whirling around from coffee pot to laundry and then to the recliner.
That’s where the blessings kept pouring down like warm summer rain.
Transferring from my wheels to the big chair-oasis for the day continued to be a difficult thing, but once there I was able to watch hours of the genuine ministries I have come to love over the years. Being held captive by my feet, I have had time to study from my own Bible during their teachings instead of half listening while multi-tasking.
God has taught me things I was sure I already knew about relying on Him for every second of life. The first shower and shampoo was a test beyond description, but I kept saying, “We can do this, Jesus! Don’t leave me!”
We did it. He stayed.
One particularly bright blessing has been my new found understanding of a small Christian television station about an hour from here in another state. Not that I have any idea about programming, but I often wondered why a cooking show would be on in the middle of the night. It seemed to me that lonely, depressed folks might tune in looking for spiritual help but not how to fry chicken. Boy did I find out!
In the wee hours of the worst of the pain onslaught, I came across Lisa, the owner’s wife, mixing up a mysterious batch of something. For thirty minutes, I was so distracted and interested in what she was doing, my moaning and crying took a break. Her easy demeanor and down-to-earth presentation were like a balm to my weariness in fighting this cruel and ongoing foot business. It was exactly the comfort I needed at that hour.
Praise the Lord, I am SO BLESSED finally to be upright, though walking kind of like a penguin. In continuing to heal, I still need the comfort of the recliner where I practice a wiggling happy feet dance many times a day as I thank God for every minute of this painful journey that has showered me with untold blessings.
Today, for example, I feasted on wonderful Bible teaching and also learned how to make apple crisp. That’s definitely a win-win.
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*True
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God is always there to help us through it all! AMEN!
Thank you for sharing your heart with us.
Blessings~
Our earthly life in training for heaven has its ups and downs.
Sometimes it is hard to see blessings when we are in pain.