Last Thursday our daughter, Lisa, visited her doctor for a routine exam. The nurse took her pulse, frowned, and took it two more times before calling in the doctor who also checked it. Her pulse, which should have been between 80 and 100, was 36. This has caused a flurry of medical activity, including five EKGs, two echocardiograms and monitored overnights in ICU. It’s a puzzle and one the cardiologist should be able to figure out tomorrow.

Through all this the phone calls and emails have been abundant. As parents, her father and I are appropriately concerned and there are hundreds of people all over the country praying. Concern causes the voices of friends to be somber and quiet and attentive. No joking here. Things are serious.

Since Troy and I are smack dab in the middle of moving from our beloved Interior Alaska to city life in near-Anchorage, this Lisa news has put things in perspective. I’m not bothering to clean for the movers and will head south tomorrow. Troy declares he can handle the movers and all the rest of the moving ordeal himself. I know he can and that he will do a dandy job of it.

When you’re in the middle of “bad days” or “bad times” it’s easy to let it overwhelm you and take over. It’s hard to step back from it all and look at the whole of things and remember what is important and what isn’t. Work is a means to provide for the things that ARE important… spouses, children, grandchildren (and for me, church and God).

It is easy to get tangled up and stressed over things that aren’t worthy of the attention. Invariably, when we look back a couple of weeks later, we can see how insignificant these things were, how unimportant, how unworthy of the stress. Pretty much none of it is THAT important or THAT vital or even that upsetting unless we choose to make it so.

Bad days can be changed to good days when you think of your family, your future, your health, and the countless thousands of blessings in your life. Work problems, as emotionally expensive as they can be, are nothing more than pesky gnats in the light of all that is good and wonderful.

This afternoon our 11-year-old granddaughter Alex, who has Downs syndrome, visited her mother in the hospital. Lisa was hooked to all sorts of wires and lines and monitors and was hooked up to oxygen. Alex stopped in the doorway, took one look at her, and said, “Holy Mackerel, what are you doing?”

And with those words, one little girl managed to put things in perspective and show us that we always have to hang on to humor and hope and love. We have an awesome God and no matter what happens he is in control and his love for us is as boundless as the eternity he created.

Quote of the blog
Struggle is the stress that makes you strong, the pressure that produces perseverance, the experience that leads to wisdom, the trial that makes you tough, the challenge that leads to triumph, the battle to be the best, the race that you must run, the war that you must win. Nobody can do it for you. You must do it on your own. But you are not alone because... everyone goes through some kind of struggle. (Craig R. Miles, Allen, Texas)

And finally…
From the church bulletin: Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

Also, the peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.


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