I woke up well before daylight this past Sunday. I got on up and did a few chores around the house. I usually meet an old friend for breakfast on Sunday mornings, so I called him to see if he was going to the restaurant. He said that he was leaving home as we spoke. I told him I would meet him there.
We met and had a really good breakfast and an even better conversation. After breakfast I followed him back to his house to pick up a sack of Vidalia onions that I needed for our fish fry that night. We sat out under an old oak tree and continued our conversation. He mentioned that one of our mutual friends was in the hospital.
I was concerned and asked all the pertinent questions. Our friend is tough as nails, a real live cowboy, but it concerned me greatly that he was hospitalized. I was certain our cowboy friend had no desire to be cooped up in a hospital. I understand that sentiment well. After we had finished talking, I headed back home.
On my way home I tried to call our cowboy friend, but his phone was turned off. I called again after lunch and he answered that time. We talked and I told him I knew what he was going through being in that hospital. I told him they would get him healed up and back home before long.
I happened to talk to another friend that afternoon and he said “well, our cowboy friend has always thought he was invincible”. That comment ran over me like a freight train. Not because our cowboy friend thought he was invincible, but because I used to think that I was. Truth be told, I would say most of us think the same thing.
I never imagined being sick. I broke my arm as a young boy and other than having a cold or a virus I had never really been sick before last year. I had rocked right along not giving sickness or health issues much thought. I had never been in a hospital or rode in an ambulance, but all that changed the day I suffered a massive stroke.
I’ve always had great concern for folks with ailments. I’ve always shown empathy and compassion for people who are suffering with any type of illness. I’ve always taken food or whatever else they needed. I just thought I would never be sick. Yet, I woke up in a hospital bed in Lubbock, Texas unable to walk.
I had friends that traveled to see me, others who sent things to me that I needed, I was truly overwhelmed. I received extraordinary care from the medical professionals at the hospital as well as the nursing home where I went for rehabilitation. My phone rang all day and into the night. Through social media there were literally thousands of people praying for me. It was an amazing experience.
I’ve said that I would not trade this last year for anything. I really wouldn’t. The love that has been shown to me. All of the kind things people have done. I watched my mama’s life change in the best way possible before her death. There have been so many wonderful things I’ve witnessed.
I have known there was a much larger hand at play through all of this. I have acknowledged all of these things. I have seen how it has changed me as well. As time passes by, I see even more clearly how much this whole experience has changed me. It continues to do so even as I type out these few words.
I have changed many things about my lifestyle. I eat healthier than I ever have. I have stopped a few bad habits that I have had for most of my life. I continue to improve at a rate that has astonished most people, including my doctors. I stand in awe of how it has all worked out. All of these things have come from a much higher power.
Prior to my health setback, I thought I had been on an already incredible journey of faith, but this experience has taken me even further. It has changed me in ways that I did not see coming. My perspective on things has changed.
I no longer look at health issues simply as a health problem. I recognized this in other people’s lives before, but until it landed on my own doorstep I didn’t fully see. I fully understand now that these health problems come to teach us and teach us they do. Health problems have the ability to capture our attention like nothing else can.
I continue to have empathy for others who are facing some type of health crisis, but my prayers for others have taken on another aspect. I still pray for healing, if it is God’s will, but mostly I pray that God will use whatever sickness it is to teach whoever may be afflicted, myself included.
These health problems, like all other problems, come to teach us. We need to adopt the mindset that all of our earthly problems come wrapped up as blessings to help us on our way. We all need to look up and know from where our help comes and remember there is always a reason these problems have arrived.
I have seen many things throughout my life, especially so, in these last months. I am utterly thankful for everything that has touched my life. I don’t begrudge not one single thing. At the time it may seem hard, but there will come a day when the light shines brightly on the reasons why.
May we all remember where it is our true help comes from and remember that we are not invincible. I know my friend who is lying in a hospital bed as I write these words may not be happy that I have told the world, hopefully he forgives me. If you are so inclined, lift up a prayer for my cowboy friend.
