java soaked theological philosophy and associated blather from a spiritual nomad

Disclaimer

I am a man with a great love for my Lord, the church and her members, and for coffee, strong and black.
I also have a great love for writing.
Everything I say here is my own opinion. Why in the world would I hold someone else's opinion?

Thursday, March 28, 2013

daily java: gripe

Daily Java: 
My heart is in anguish within me;
    the terrors of death have fallen on me.
Fear and trembling have beset me;
    horror has overwhelmed me.
I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest.
I would flee far away
    and stay in the desert;
I would hurry to my place of shelter,
    far from the tempest and storm.” (Psalm 55:5-8)
This post is a gripe and has no answer. Yet I feel I have to write something. And this blog is my release.

Yesterday marks the fifth or sixth time to fall. I am now in the situation that my right arm is seriously hurt and I find I have a broken collarbone. I have hit my head three times seriously, twice on the back and once of the front (yesterday). I have fallen in public three times making it rather humiliating. and I am at the point that I can barely move. I am faced with Easter services as the only musician in our church and the peripheral neuropathy in my hands is so bad I do not know if I am going to be able to play. My church is scared for me and have gotten to harping on me to carry around a walker and all kinds of other stuff.

I am in constant pain from all this and the side-effects of the chemo. I fear they will get tired of all this and begin to move away from me. I am totally discouraged. I am in a good work that I could do something with but can do nothing. I have approached this whole thing with as positive an attitude as I can but am coming to a point of being tired and wanting nothing but to sleep.

Today I would welcome death. I know where I am going and there is no pain. But of course Ella needs me. However, today, she almost fell at her doctor's office and I could do nothing but watch while everybody else helped her. i walk slowly and carefully and have found myself, for the first time in my life, afraid. I am afraid of falling. At my height, it is a long way to the ground and I just do not know how to fall. So I walk carefully and slowly and Ella says I have added 15 years to my apparent age just looking at me walking.

God does not send bad things, but he does allow them. And is the strong man watching the bully beat up a smaller man without interfering any different that the bully himself? I know You and I have discussed this in the past, but it is a very real thing in my life right now. There is no week that goes by without at least four or five things bad happening to me. And these are not small things. I have hit both shoulders numerous times with painful results. I have hit my head causing painful contusions three times. I have damaged my right knee and my right hip pretty badly.

Add to this the cancer and the drastic weight loss and inability to eat and the chemo-therapy, the peripheral neuropathy - all the other junk.

I don't know, but I feel I am at the end. I know that God is not always fair. But he is supposed to be always good. I saw good things coming from this when I came and was full of buoyant hope in the knowledge that I was supposed to do something great here so the devil was going to do his best to stop me. But now? I cannot stop, but I feel I have trouble going on. My life is a shambles.

I know there is no answer. But something has to give. It hurts my fingers even to type this letter.

I will have to admit, if it were not for the relationship I have with my wife, I do not know what I would do. However, even tat is showing strain. She is afraid and was from the beginning. She doesn't know what to do and many of her encouragements turn out to be the wrong direction or the like. She does what she can yet she is so limited too. So we are stuck. Every trip to the VA is 100 miles round trip. I just hope my resources hold up. and that Ella and I hold up.

1 comment:

  1. My friend and pastor John, I hear you. I haven't the answers you want. This is your trial by fire (it seems) and you and I know that the devil is yanking your chain. You are the preacher and know the walk better than I do, Job sounds like a good beginning. He had it worse than you (as if I know what either of you feel/felt) Your fight is between you and the devil and if you let us Your church is there for you. When we make suggestions you prefer doing whatever your own way which is ok, but sometimes it is nice to "Pass the buck" as Harry Truman said......and LET us help where we can. If you must use canned music at church do it. None of us mind. If you can start us we all can carry a tune Or make a Joyful noise to the Lord, and He enjoys what we do and sing. You can't plan ahead, but I agree with Ella, you have aged a lot since November....but it will all ease out once your treatments are done......I know there are drivers here in Longton,& Elk County that would enjoy helping you get to appointments..I am very sorry I can't be one of them. Eyes are not as good as they could be and my stamina is not either. You vent all you want. I haven't heard or seen anyone ready to get rid of you. Just that they want to help you more. I am rambling now....but I am sure you got my message. I know you don't like me nagging at you so I will come off my old mule.......and find something else to do. Do what you can, delegate what you can.......postpone what you can and stop the worrying. Pray and Pray some more and then sleep and take care of you. Hugs. God bless Judy

    ReplyDelete

To comment, post your comment and click the anonymous button. It would be nice if you signed it so I could know who you are.
You are welcome to say anything you want as long as it is nice. If I don't like it, or it is ugly, I will take it off, place it into the garbage disposal, grind it up, and allow it to be flushed into the Gulf of Mexico where it will be eaten by a fish and then excreted where it will lie on the bottom of the ocean until it is covered up by other comments.