Raw

My nerves are raw this morning and I just can’t seem to settle them.

A young lady at our church was involved in a severe car accident yesterday afternoon. She was on one of the many two lane roads in our area when her tires slipped off the right side of the road. Being a young driver she over-corrected and her car crossed lanes and slid sideways into the path of an oncoming Dodge Truck. She suffered many injuries but the worse was the head-trauma.

I received a call just after dinner and went to the hospital shortly thereafter to pray and visit with the family. Even though the prognosis wasn’t good I felt in my soul that things would be OK.

Neither my wife or I could sleep well last night. She confided in me this morning that every time she awoke she would pray for this girl. Little did she know I was doing the same thing.

Unfortunately, this young lady passed away about 8:00 this morning. I went back to the hospital to console the family. The Dad, at least on the surface, appears to be doing OK. The Mom, as you would expect, not so good.

Having kids just a couple of years older, makes this all the more painful and real to me. If I had to walk this out in my own life, I could do it but it would be O’ so excruciatingly agonizing. As individuals and as a church we’ll help the family get though this... and they will. It’s just that my heart hurts so bad for them right now.

Today, in particular, I wish I could rewrite the rule book:

Rule 1: Parents do not bury their children!

Rumors Of My Death

To quote Mark Twain, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated”! Thanks for those who’ve checked on me (esp, Allison and Vivian). It’s nice to know you’re part of a community where people care about each other even though very few of us have ever met face to face.

Sorry I’ve been away so long. I’ve picked up a couple of new responsibilities this year and they’ve taken a fair amount of my time. As you read my blog you don’t have to dig very deep to guess that we’re heavily involved in our church. Specifically, two years ago I was elected as a deacon for my second term since at this church. Last year I was elected Vice-chairman and this year I’m serving as Chairman of that 10 member team. We have a church body with about 700 in attendance on Sunday morning. Deacons are servants at our church, we visit the sick and shut-ins and deal with benevolence issues, administer communion and several other tasks. It’s basically a cool job and I enjoy ministering and helping people.

By Chairing the Deacons I’m also by default on the Board of Directors. The board has been wrestling with an important theological issue that I inherited when my term took effect Jan 1. The board has met several times and exchanged countless emails trying to come to some sort of resolution. We’ve all lost sleep over the issue and last Friday I fasted and prayed, petitioning the Almighty for an amicable resolution. Yesterday, after a 3 plus hour meeting, I believe we reached that resolution. We have one more meeting later in the week and a church business meeting next Sunday (where it could rear its head) and then I believe we will be done. Hallelujah!

On another subject, after Christmas we spent three days with my wife’s sister and her husband in Garland, TX. Even though the weather was nice, except for the first day, I fell off the exercise wagon. The good news is two-fold: one, my left hamstring which had been bothering me since I started continually exercising back in Feb ’06 healed and is a problem no more and secondly, I climbed back on the wagon immediately upon returning home. I guess I’ve become a little OCD about exercising, but it has really helped my overall control. However, it’s still not where I would like it to be.

I probably won’t get to post tomorrow, but it is the day I officially celebrate my 38th anniversary with diabetes. All is well on that front or at least as well as can be expected. At some point I’d really like to have a CGMS to tighten my contol. Things are going to have to change on the monetary front before that will happen.

Peace and love to you all.