June 19, 2005
Thank you to all who were praying and are praying for me this week! I greatly appreciate it!!! I was very scared about it this past week, up until they put me out, but God was good and things are going super well! I was able to give it all to God Thursday night and have a good sleep, but when they were hooking me up to all these machines I became scared again, but they did well.
Because they had a hard time finding my veins they used a small needle for the water IV and it took a long time to drip into me. The doctor did want me to leave until I had three bags of water put into me. It took over 2 hours to get the rest of the one bag in me and a second one. I didn’t mind, I slept half the time anyways. It gave me an opportunity to see jut how well I was being taken care of. They felt so bad that it was taking so long. After two hours they let David come back and keep me company. They were great, I didn’t have to wait for any certain person if I needed anything, if I could make eye contact with any of the nurses working in the area they would give me what I needed. I felt very well taken care of and it made me feel SO much better about everything.
My appointment was at 9:00 am, and we finally left at 12:30. The actual surgery took only 20 minutes.
God has been Good, I have only felt real pain a few times. Yesterday after going to the library with David. Last night at 3 Am when I woke up, and a little bit now because I have been up and about a quite a bit making supper and the like. The Doctor said that because I was 25 I can expect 5-7 days of recovery rather than 3-5. I think I am doing very well.
Thank you so very much for your prayer!! God is answering them!
Love you very much, In Christ Rita
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY POP!!!! HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD HJELLE!!!!
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From the mouth of Christ:
“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” ~ Revelation 2:4, NIV.
From C.S. Lewis’ The Pilgrim’s Regress:
Suddenly John spoke again.
“Why should it wear out if it is from the Landlord? It doesn’t last, you know. Isn’t it that which gives away the whole case?”
“Have you not heard men say, or have you forgotten that it is like human love?” asked the hermit.
“What has that to do with it?”
“You would not ask if you have been married, or even if you had studied generation among the beasts. Do you not know how it is with love? First comes delight: then pain: then fruit. And then there is joy of the fruit, but that is different again from the first delight. And mortal lovers must not try to remain at the first step: for lasting passion is the dream of a harlot and from it we wake in despair. You must not try to keep the raptures: they have done their work. Manna kept, is worms. But you are full of sleep and we had better talk no more.”
(I probably need to give a disclaimer here that The Pilgrim’s Regress is an allegory—John is on the road to faith, the Landlord is God, and the hermit is a wise man along the way.)
I’ve spent a lot of time in my life thinking of the words of Christ in Revelation about “forsaking my first love.” I guess I’ve always understood that to mean that the Ephesians had somehow lost the passion for Christ and the Gospel which they had at first. Maybe that is precisely what it means. But Lewis seems to take a pretty different tack at it—he even says that “lasting passion is the dream of a harlot.” Ouch.
Isn’t lasting passion precisely what I seek in my faith? I don’t want to forsake my first love! I want to live a life full-out and passionate for the God Whom I serve. I don’t want the excitement to die! I don’t want to be content with living in mediocrity.
“You must not try to keep the raptures: they have done their work.”
But maybe there is wisdom here. All the passion and excitement did serve to reinforce and cement my faith like nothing else could. I am saved! Yet, I have seen the passion ebb and wane through the past years. It often seems that the passion is slowly becoming less and less familiar. How frustrating! But, if Lewis is right, this is the process of growing, and maturing, and continuing on in faith.
It reminds me of contentment. How ill-content I can be! But, no matter what my feelings or circumstances may try to dictate, Christ is my Lord and my Savior—whom shall I fear? Ought I not be completely content in His care—even with the lack of passion?
Step back for a moment, though. Haven’t we lost something wonderful without passion in our lives? I think so. Here’s the rub: what are we seeking after? It is terribly easy to seek after the passion, to live for the next high, to bow down to the excitement and to “wake in despair” in its clutches. I need to seek God. Whatever may come along in the path is secondary—passion or trials, good times or bad, a chariot or a cross. Christ is my goal. I am to be content in whatever way He sees fit to bring me to Himself. And in Him I will find passion worth having. He is the fulfillment of all my dreams.
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Well, you may have been quick enough to notice already, but the Photos section actually has some photos in it! Well, two photos, at least. We’ll be adding more as we organize the photos that we already have on my Mac and start scanning in a lot of the new ones that we’ve taken since our wedding.
I should warn you that each photo gallery right now has two listings in the menu under “Photos.” I know—it is confusing. One is for a page of thumbnails of all the pictures in that gallery. The other is a sub-menu that lists all the photos in the gallery. I hope to get this confusion sorted out before too long—but it is time for bed tonight.
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