Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A Horrible, Terrible, No Good Very Bad Day/Week

We left Stephen and Neeley and our new grandson, Jack, just 10 days after he was born.  Even though we would like to stay and watch the little guy grow up, we knew that Stephen and Neeley needed to be alone with their son.  Besides, we had to get to Lake Havasu City by January 13th.  We also needed to spend a couple of days with my sister, Andrea and her two children.  She had a "Shelley Do List" for me.  After completing the work list and spending time with Spencer and Madison we completed the final leg of our trip and arrived in Lake Havasu City at the home of our good friends, Stan and Stephanie Broder, just in time for dinner.

Sunday morning I preached "Seek No Vengeance" from Romans 12:17-21.  I spoke on biblical humility and love for others even when one's enemies, or anyone for that matter, may have wronged or offended you.  In the evening the message title was "A Proper Attitude Towards Government" From Romans 13.  I had some very good responses.  One man said that it was like I hit him with a baseball bat.

So far, so good.  We have been in Lake Havasu for about 36 hours and all was well.  On Monday morning we went to Dayle's appointment with the "perfect" doctor for her osteoporosis.  I was so happy to finally get this started.  Then the disappointment began and so did the beginning of a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad week.  This doctor was a "flake."  This doctor walked into the room and totally ignored me and gave Dayle a brief handshake.  She asked Dayle a couple of questions and then prescribed a different drug for her to take for two years.  This doctor totally ignored anything Dayle had to say or anything that any previous doctor had recommended.  This doctor was very young and obviously inexperienced and did not display any concern for the patient.  When Dayle tried to ask her about two other problems that she is having the doctor said, "they only give me 15 minutes for each visit and I only discuss one thing per visit.  So, you will have to make two more appoints to address the other issues."  We couldn't believe what we had just heard.  I suppose we got spoiled by every other doctor that we have ever had who truly cared for us.  This new drug is supposed to be very successful for osteoporosis but Dayle called the doctor to ask a question concerning drug interaction......the doctor never called back.  So we figured that we better find another doctor.  She has an appointment this Friday with this another doctor.  Pray that this will turn out for the better and will have wisdom (and time) to help with the issues concerning Dayle's health.

After we got home from the very disappointing doctor's visit, I unpacked my desktop computer.  I love my desktop computer.  I use dual monitors which makes my study and sermon preparation productive and very enjoyable.  When I turned it on the screen displayed absolutely nothing.  My hard drive had totally died. (Fortunately I had all the important stuff backed up.)  I contacted a couple of computer techs and they told me to get a new hard drive and get the recovery disks from HP to make my computer just like new.

Then I pulled Dayle's laptop computer out of the cupboard.  Her ancient laptop hasn't been used in a few months but this is where she has most of her lessons and studies.  When I plugged it in it started smoking, literally.  I quickly unplugged it before everything melted.  I opened the case and found that the power connection had broken and shorted out.  So her computer was now toast and nothing was backed up.  I got on eBay and found a used identical laptop computer for $50 which arrived yesterday (Monday).  I pulled out her hard drive from the old computer and put it in the new one and all is well.  Yay!

One of the joys of being in Lake Havasu is the that I get to play senior softball on Monday's and Thursday's. There are lots of opportunities to share about the Lord and our ministry there. So this past Thursday I showed up at the ball fields with all my equipment.  Most everyone remembered me and it was good to see everyone.  When asked what team I was on I discovered that the league play had started and I had missed the sign-up.  The league lasts for seven weeks.  So I cannot play until the league play is over unless 11 players get injured.  I am number 11 on the waiting list.  I was so disappointed I wanted to cry.  But this is a senior league and these old guys do get hurt so I may have a chance.

I went home all disappointed because I couldn't play softball.  So I thought I would take my mountain bike and go for a ride in the hills.  Bike riding is so enjoyable for me and I knew it would cheer me up.  (Am I sounding like a whinny baby stinky pants yet?)  So I went to Sara Park and was going to ride the rugged trail all the way to the river.  It was such perfect riding weather. I was feeling so good. As I was going down a fairly steep hill my seat post bolt snapped in half sending my seat in one direction and me in another.  I didn't get hurt for which I was really thankful because I now had to walk the bike out almost two miles.

Well I still have my road bike, so the next day I thought I would go for a 20 mile ride, at least that was my plan,  I went only 6 miles when I got this terrible cramp causing excruciating pain in my right inner thigh and almost had to call for Dayle to come rescue me. I was able to stretch it out and walk it out each time it flared up.  I made it home finally and was sitting with and ice pack for the rest of the day.

Back to my desktop computer..... the Recovery Disks came and the new hard drive came.  I installed the new hard drive and followed the instructions for the recovery disks to no avail.  Got an error message telling me that the operating system is not compatible with the hardware.  After several hours of messing with the hardware, I finally gave up.  Now I would have to buy a new operating system.  Then the new hard drive stopped working.  Arrrrggggg.  I figured that it would be more cost effective to just get a new computer.  Staples had a good one on sale and it will be here Wednesday.

Then on Friday afternoon Dennis asked me to preach again on Sunday morning because he is still in a lot of pain.   So, I asked Dayle if she had any suggestions for a sermon topic and she said, "Humility, and the Sovereignty of God."  Ouch, I guess I was being a whinny baby.  I had mentioned several times that I was having a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad week.  There is nothing like preaching from personal experience. So my sermon title was "How Not to Have a Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day/Week." I used Titus 2:13-14, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.  This of course speaks of our attitude that is to always be in the forefront of our thinking.  After all, God is in control of all things even when things don't go the way we want them to go.  But if we keep looking for the blessed hope and and the appearing of His glory, all these things don't have to bother us (or me) at all.   But we could and should live denying ungodliness and worldly desires, and live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age all the while looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.  All that happened to us this past week is nothing when you compare it to all that Christ suffered for us.  I think sometimes God allows all these annoyances to teach us that this world is not our home so don't get to comfortable!!

Please keep my Dayle in your prayers.  Also pray for our church here, Bethany Bible Church, that God would bring the increase. also for pastor Dennis who is still in great pain due to two herniated disks and hip problems.  He will be having an MRI very soon to determine the extent of the damage.