Freda Update

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I pray you had a wonderful beginning to 2009. Gary and I did. I ended 2008 with fantastic Christmas celebrations with family and church family. Our children and grandchildren were able to be with us at extended family gatherings for my family and Gary’s family. Because my family gathering was held at the home of my now deceased grandparents, one of my joys was watching my grandchildren play with my cousin’s grandchildren where I had played as a child. It gave me time to reflect with gratitude on the Christian heritage we were all given.

I was in the hospital seven times in 2008 and all of the admissions were on Thursdays (the last being Thanksgiving Day). That made me especially grateful that I was home Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Some of the nurses in my doctor’s office always ask on Monday if I made it past Thursday without going to the hospital. I wanted to take Thursday out of the week, but felt that was unfair to those who had good Thursdays!

On Christmas Eve morning I finished one of my goals for 2008—I finished reading through the Bible. As has been true every year I have done that, I learned so much and God spoke to me in many ways. If you have never read through the Bible, consider doing so in 2009. There are plenty of helps and guides as you do so. On that day it struck me as particularly significant to be reading from Malachi, knowing the Jews were looking for the Messiah, and then reading the last chapter of Revelation that ends “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen” (Revelation 22:20-21). As I celebrated His first coming, I was also looking forward to His coming again. Are you praying He will come soon?

I discovered last Sunday that teaching Bible study can be hazardous to your health. I stood to pray at the end of class, fell, and twisted an ankle. Though I attended worship in a wheel chair, applied icepacks, and elevated the leg, my Sunday activities were done. I really wanted to be in the evening service because we were ordaining a young man out of Westside into pastoral ministry and commissioning a member of my Bible study class for a four month mission trip. I am so grateful for the many God has called out of Westside over these 28 years.

Monday was my usual doctor marathon. At the oncologist’s office I needed shots for low blood counts and had an inspection of the ankle. Thank goodness it appears to just be a bad sprain, nothing ice and elevation won’t fix. Then time in the cardiologist office raised more questions. I have continued to have episodes of heart arrhythmia, though none as bad as those that hospitalized me, and hope a determination will be made this Monday on the proper treatment. There are additional concerns because of the cancer treatment, but that is going well.

The January Little Rock visit has tentatively been postponed until the first week in March. I will continue to mail labwork for their assessment and unless things change I will not have to go until then. That will also give more time to settle the heart issues.

My mother gave me a book by Max Lucado, Every Day Deserves a Chance. I like to read Lucado devotionally, that is a chapter a day. In chapter one he makes a good point about, “This is the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). The “This is the day” includes everyday. We can’t change yesterday or control tomorrow so we are to rejoice in the day we are given. Notice that little word “in”. Lucado reminds us that “As Paul rejoiced in prison; David wrote psalms in the wilderness; Jonah prayed in the fish belly; Paul and Silas sang in jail; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego remained resolute in the fiery furnace; John saw heaven in his exile; and Jesus prayed in his garden of pain. . . Could we rejoice smack-dab in the midst of this day?” I know that is one of my goals for 2009—to be grateful for and rejoice in each day God gives me. My suffering does not begin to compare to that of Jesus and the others listed above. And after all, God is in control and has a plan for me each day. As I rejoice I focus on Him and put myself in a position to hear Him and follow His direction. Pray that I will rejoice in each day this year.