Growing in Grace

Hello, Family and Friends.  Just wanted to give you a brief update and share a prayer request for Dennis. I posted an update on my blog at the beginning of April. You can read it here if you like. I'll pick up from there. Dennis had a CT scan and colonoscopy at the beginning of May as this fell between the anniversaries of his two surgeries. The CT scan looked good, but revealed that he did have a small hernia above his ostomoy site. The colonoscopy went well. The doctor found a few small polyps which he removed. He said everything looked good, especially the surgery site; and he reminded us that Dr. Pigazzi is one of the top surgeons. We all looked forward to the end of school which for us was June 11. The summer has been good for Dennis. He has been able to both rest and exercise. These have worked together to increase his energy level. I wrote on my post in April that he was struggling with this as well as with digestive issues. Not only has his energy level inc

"One act of thanksgiving, when things go wrong with us, is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclinations." - Saint John of Avila 1 Peter 4:12 tells us not to be surprised at painful trials. James 1:2 says to consider it joy when we face trials. We live in a fallen world. Because sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, there is now pain, toil, disease, and death. No one is exempt from this, not even those who call Christ their Savior. But in the midst of our difficulties and sufferings, there is grace and we can still practice the counting of blessings. I have now trained my mind to see that "it could always be worse" and we have something for which to be thankful. Ann Voskamp writes, "joy and pain, they are but two arteries of one heart that pumps through all those who don't numb themselves to really living. . . life is loss. . . I am guaranteed to lose every earthly thing I have ever possessed." (p. 84) And while we m

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." J.R.R. Tolkien In Ann Voskamp's book "One Thousand Gifts" she quotes from "The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Your Sabbath" by Mark Buchanan. He writes, "Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I've ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing. . . Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away." I surely have been guilty of rushing - of trying to finish one thing so I could move on to the next. I've often missed out on fun moments with my kids because I was too busy finishing up. Too often I've been in a hurry to get them into bed so I could rest. I wonder how many moments I've missed because I didn't take th

Ann Voskamp writes early in her book "One Thousand Gifts" about how we are reliving the Garden story. She says, "our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in God and what He gives. We hunger for something more, something other." (p. 15) There was a time in my life where this was true for me. I lived with a feeling of concern for our provision and a sadness that I couldn't have all I wanted. Paul writes in Philippians 4:11-12, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret to being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." I desired to know Paul's "secret". In her book, Ann asks the question,  "Will I have lived fully - or just empty?" (p. 29) I know I desire to live fully. She goes on to discuss the idea of "euchari

John Chapter 5 opens with Jesus coming upon the Pool of Bethesda near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. There he finds a man who has been lame for 38 years. Jesus asks the man if he wants to be healed. It is interesting to note that the man does not answer with an enthusiastic “Yes!”. While some at that time preferred to remain in their state of disability in order to profit from begging, this man’s excuse for why he wasn’t able to reach the pool when it was stirred seems to indicate that he may have lost his will to be healed. Another thought is that he didn’t realize who he was speaking to so simply answered logically. Whatever the man’s thoughts about being healed, it is important to see that although the man didn’t come to Jesus, Jesus came to the man in his time of need. When Jesus gives the command to the man to pick up his mat and walk, the man’s faith becomes connected to the power of Jesus and he is healed. This healing was done on the Sabbath and brought controversy among the pe