Life Matters - March 26, 2025
Surrendering our needs to God; seeing His provision in the response of love poured our way by so many loving people, was a tremendous strengthening to my/our faith. Besides the supplying for our financial need, friends, family, neighbors were incredibly supportive, many even came to visit at Sanford Hospital-Sioux Falls. Each one was appreciated—each one a blessing—even though I suppose it was, at times, hard to tell because I have never, ever, been so weary my whole life long. My brother David, whose wife is Sadie’s sister Mary, came all the way from Michigan to stay with me a few days, to give my wife a break, and my weariness between therapies gave us very little remaining time to visit.
I was told by Doctor Peter that brain healing uses up a lot of energy and I now have a reference point to say; yes, it does!
Whatever else can be said about my needs while hospitalized; indeed my love tank stayed full! The nurses cared, the doctors cared, friends and neighbors cared, family cared—and I was the grateful recipient of all that care and love. If anyone got tired of me—which I couldn’t have blamed them for—they sure didn’t let it out. (Sadie says a nurse was rude to me when I didn’t know better) Sadie, the love of my life, stuck it out with me…we were in this together. I hoped and believed that once we got home we would stay in this together. Taking the lead role in our home looked insurmountable even as my wife became more and more adept at it. We talked about it. About Biblical roles and whether it was going to be hard for her to release her lead role back to me once I was able? She assured me that releasing it all back to me was going to be a tremendous relief to her. What neither of us figured into that equation is that, in our minds, “once I was able” has its variables…
While I was hospitalized, I had other things to think about. In all my physical weaknesses my brain stayed very active. Spurred on by Doctor Peter’s advice to exercise it, I exercised my injured brain in every way I could think of. Holding a book was an impossibility as yet. Even if I could, I was still too cross-eyed from brain injury to read so Sadie took the blessed time to read the Bible and several books out loud to me. I silently did school lessons in my head. I put names to faces and faces to names. I recalled and silently quoted Bible verses. A Bible verse of particular interest to me was Philippians 4:8, ‘’Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.’’ As I thought on these things, God’s ways proved themselves over and over to be better than my ways and I became more and more convinced that our thoughts should not be left to meander about wherever they feel like, but need brought into subjection to reality, to God and His Word. (II Corinthians 10:5) This left little time and no excuse to feel sorry for myself, which in retrospect, would not have been good for brain healing. Besides the spiritual encouragement from God and His Word, I verily believe I could sense my relieved brain absorbing healing by the grace of God as I “thought on these things.”
There have been austere societies who thought and taught that humor is bad, but since I’m a vocal proponent of a merry heart doing good like a medicine (Proverbs 17:22), as it stays within God-fearing decency and restraint, I even chuckle to myself at times when nobody is present to share what humors me. Except Sadie, who has gotten so used to it that she doesn’t always ask me “what’s funny?” If she would just add “honey” it would be, “What’s funny honey?”
As the November days crept toward being released from the confining hospital walls, I got increasingly antsy. Inwardly, that is, as even “ants in my pants” would not have given me the coordination needed to fight off such would-be freeloaders. Coordination was still a major problem exacerbated, or perhaps caused, by the lack of sensitivity in my extremities, including the soles of my feet, making balance impossible. A balance I never gave much thought to before as it just came effortlessly; right? Wrong. I have discovered balance is a God-created miracle that can be taken for granted. Until one has very little of it left.
Sadie knew my weakness for falling and kept a close eye on me once I gained enough strength to grope my feeble way along furniture to the bathroom door. By myself! I’m guessing the danger grew with my growing confidence.
When I heard the bathroom door close from my stretched out place on the bed where I lay facing the door to the hallway and the wall next to it with a row of hooks, one of which had a half dozen or so leather therapy belts hanging from the hooked on buckles, a plan instantly formed itself in my brain. With much effort I got my feet off the side of my bed and half-slid/half-fell to the floor, half slid-half crawled across to where the belts hung, braced myself against the wall as I agonized my way upright where I finally stood with a hand on the belt buckles on the hook. I did have second thoughts, but I’d gotten this far and thought better of quitting now, so I painfully slowly grasped the belt buckles and pushed them forward on the hook until they, all together, fell off the hook to the floor where the combination of leather belts and buckles gave off the satisfying thump and clatter that I had imagined.
The bathroom door flew open! A satisfyingly aghast Sadie stared at me with wild eyes that slowly mellowed into comprehension… “Oh you!” she exclaimed, as the bathroom door closed behind her retreating figure. Feeling normal felt good. Even as taking advantage of her caring spirit did not, as with some trepidation we faced an unknown future—together…
Life Matters!