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My Recent Health Woes
Hello Blog World. I thought I would share with y’all an e-mail I sent out to my church family tonight about my health:
Happy Sabbath Church Family–
I decided to sit down tonight and write a quick note to y’all in regards to my health. I haven’t preached for two Sabbaths in a row (I am preaching tomorrow) and several individuals have asked if my absence has been due to my health, since I made a brief comment about it a couple of Sabbaths ago. The answer is “yes” and “no”. Yes, I didn’t preach two weeks ago due to my health. No, this last Sabbath was just a planned week off. But let me share with y’all the story as quickly as a preacher can:) Back in February I began to get some rather severe headaches, I am not one prone to headaches so I was a little alarmed, especially when they didn’t go away and began to get worse. I spoke with the resident doctor of our family my brother-in-law Chad and he told me I needed to go see a neurologist, he gave me a number…but that was the end of that. In mid-April the head aches began to subside some and so I thought they were just a random seasonal thing. Then in May they came back and around the same time I also began to experience regular short bouts of dizziness. Again my family urged me to the go to the Dr., but again I ignored them and kept on. Christina kept telling me I needed to go, she has actually been telling me to just get a regular check-up for years!!! I asked her “when do I have the time?” and always assured her, “I am fine.” Well several Sabbaths ago I experienced a couple of those dizzy spells while preaching. A little alarming, but they are 30 seconds or less, so no big deal. Then that next week I about when down while picking something up and I thought, “that could be one of my kids I was trying to pick up.” That day I was up in Fresno and I had some time to kill, and I saw a sign for a walk-in urgent care and so I dropped in. The individual that examined me told me I probably had an inner ear infection and sent me on my way.That night at house of prayer my head ache was just raging and so I decided to ask Dr. Eller who was there what he thought. He did the right thing, HE SCARED ME:). He told me it didn’t sound like an inner ear infection and I needed to get to a Neurologist. Well, through the suggestion of Dr. Eller, I got made an appointment with Dr. Soloniuk-Tays. She got me in right away and in that visit we discovered a perfect storm of symptoms. Headaches, Dizziness, right side weakness, right side reflex deficiency, forehead numbness, left ear hearing loss. Like I said it was the perfect storm of symptoms and even as I was being checked I realized this wasn’t looking good. All the symptoms together pointed to something very bad. I was told not to drive and to rest. And for the next 24 hours Christina and I mentally prepared for the worst. Praying and praising God for whatever would come.
Dr. Bouitt and Jon Jacques got me into an MRI ASAP and at the end of that MRI we discovered that I wasn’t gonna die, at least not yet:)! But obviously things were still wrong. So I’ve been back to see the Neurologist a couple times and to see Dr. Soloniuk again, had some labs, gone to PT, yada, yada, yada. Here is what we know: I have a pinched ulnar nerve in my right arm. I have mild carpal tunnel in my right wrist. I am definitely hearing deprived in my left ear, we don’t know why yet. I have muscle weakness on my right side, I have an MRI on my neck to check for a possible bulging disc after I get back from camp meeting. I have a muscle in my neck that is a difficult muscle to work with but something is wrong with it and it is what is causing my head aches, the numbness in my forehead, and possibly the vertigo since it attaches right behind the ear and has been known I was told to cause dizziness. My total cholesterol is too high, and my bad cholesterol is way to high. We also discovered I do have some extra tissue in my brain but nothing to worry about! I told one member this and they asked if it was then okay to call me fathead? 🙂 All the persons I have seen have been wonderful and I feel blessed to have had such great care. They have all given me much wonderful insight and one common piece of advice, “You need to take better care of yourself.” I am a naturally intense and passionate person, it is my personality, that I probably won’t be able to change much. But my diet, my sleep, my exercise, my time with my family I can control and it is in these places I seek balance and I ask you for your prayers in as well. Some things I learned in all of this:
- That Dr. Eller, Dr. Soloniuk-Tays, Dr. Bouitt, and Jon Jacques are awesome!!!!! (I really already knew this about all of them, but it was just confirmed) I love y’all!
- I learned that folk without God and without a church family need Him and a church family desperately! I LOVED!!!!! and felt so blessed to have our prayer partners praying! To be able to call up brothers and sisters in Christ here locally and across the country that hit their knees in prayer for me. I felt the strength of those prayers! My heart literally aches for people that don’t have that. I think of all the individuals that go through what I went through on a daily basis and in many cases their results aren’t excellent like mine. And yet they have no God that they can turn to and no family that will petition the Almighty for them! We can’t rest ’till everyone has had a chance to be a part of God’s family!
- I realized that though I would not want to go through on a regular basis, it is a good thing to have to stop and take moment or 24 hours to think about the fragility of life. To take account of ones life and where we are at with the Lord is a blessed reality!
- How awesome is the assurance of Salvation! I pray each of you know that if your last breath were tonight that you are saved by our loving Savior!
So that is my story. Thanks for listening. Please continue to pray for me, the dizziness has been a little better. Maybe that is b/c I have been trying to slow down a little. The head aches remain pretty constant but not agonizing, just the minute awareness that something is a little off on a continual basis. I pray it goes away, but I have told the Lord whatever He sees as best. I may need a thorn in my flesh.
I love y’all and let us all continue to reach people for Kingdom Growth! Pastor ChadCars Pull Over In the South
I had only been living in the South a short time, the real South (Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, etc.) not Southern California, I was driving along when suddenly all the cars in front of me began to stop. Not pull over to the side of the road and stop, but literally STOP right where they were at. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I looked around the cars, I didn’t see anything that would be blocking the cars. I was frustrated, what was going on?! Then I noticed a driver from one of the cars got out of his car and respectfully stood facing the two lane highway going the opposite direction. That is when I noticed something amazing. Over the grass median heading in the opposite direction was a funeral procession. I thought to myself, “this must be someone very important for all these cars to stop.” But as I watched it seemed just like your ordinary run of the mill funeral. I waited patiently, thinking I must be missing something. Then the man got back in his car and we all began to move again.
It wasn’t more than a few weeks later when I was driving along and suddenly all the cars in front of me were stopping. Yep, another funeral procession. In the South it doesn’t matter if you are the President of the United States or Billy the local porch sitter, if you die, people will stop for your funeral procession. I was once in a procession for one of our members that had died. I noticed something else on this occasion. People on the sidewalks even stopped walking, kids got off their bikes, and everyone stood respectfully while the procession passed.
I was happy the day I saw a funeral procession and no one else was around, but I was able to stop and wait respectfully in the middle of the road while cars behind me slowed to a stop as well. No one honked or sped by me. We just sat there, for 5 minutes not moving paying respect to the family and friends of the deceased individual.
Last Friday we were driving through Visalia and came upon a rather large funeral motorcade. Christina asked me, “Are you going to stop?” Sadly I looked at her and said, “We aren’t in the South anymore.”
I love living in Visalia, but every now and then I miss the South! Thanks Dixie for still making honor more important that rushing through life and for teaching me a little about respect for our fellow man!
What U2, Bon Jovi, & AC/DC Teach Us About Church
Most people don’t like change! They say they do, “No really I actually like change,” but they really don’t. I think maybe it is seen as uncool by some especially in my generation to say that they don’t like change, to admit they just prefer the good ‘ole stand-by/status quo ways of doing things, so people say they like change. By the way you can tell if people really like change by how they respond to it and how long it takes them to wrap their head around an idea or if they resist at all. People that really like change don’t usually resist to every “change idea” initially. Some people, I believe, think they do like change simply because they are able to change, but being able to change and liking change are two far different things! And most people don’t like change, and this is frustrating to me as a Pastor, especially as a pastor that likes change! Now let me be honest, I don’t like change in all areas. It took me a long time before I decided l liked Chinese food, Indian food, Thai food (I love them all now, but it took some time). If you go to a Mexican restaurant there may be something wrong with me if I don’t order cheese enchiladas. I still prefer and use a hard copy to do list over the new technology that allows me to digitize all my tasks, unlike my good friend Rodlie who is In Lust Over Wunderlist. I still prefer baseball games that are a 2-1 pitchers duel over the crazy 10 to 9 games of the steroid era! So I don’t like change in all areas.
But where I do like change is in church! Why is this? Because 80% of all Adventist churches in North America are plateaued or dying and I personally cannot just sit around accepting things “as is” when so many people still need to be introduced to Jesus and to learn the full truth’s of scripture. Or while the church I love dies a slow death of irrelevance in North America. So what am I willing to do? I am willing to change in every area without compromising principles in order to reach people for Jesus! What I have discovered is that other people don’t feel the same way as me! And this honestly has at times about driven me CRAZY! Because I have interpreted often, which is what drives me crazy, that people who don’t like change, really HATE change and refuse to like anything different.
So what does this have to do with U2, Bon Jovi, & AC/DC? All these bands are old! AC/DC first entered the rock music scene in 1973, U2 was formed in 1976 and hit it big in 1980, and Bon Jovi in 1983. These bands by the ever changing music world are old! Yet in 2010 Bon Jovi, AC/DC, & U2 were the top concert draws around the world! Old or not, people have gotten used to them and people like what they are used to. It doesn’t mean people don’t like other types of music or other music groups, they just like to come back to some of the old classics.
I think this is good for me to remember as a pastor…maybe it isn’t that most people hate all the changes, they may not like change, but they don’t hate it, they just hate that at least of the few “old classics” still aren’t around. Like singing out of a hymnbook, pathfinders, old school evangelism, etc. So maybe the thing to do is while in the midst of change to make sure we keep around a few of the “old classics” or to at least bring them out for a tour every now and then so that people can know that all they once loved is not completely dead.
Kinda like I have accepted that the new Heritage Singers are a better fit for the time and era in which we live:
I still like to go back and get a little of the “Old School” every now and then:
What Will I Do Without Facebook?
I have decided to delete my Facebook account. Why? Because it is a time vacuum! I have friends that have Facebook and they check it once a week and that is it, if I was one of those people, that would be great. Unfortunately I don’t seem to be one of those people, so I am more the kind that checks it once an hour. What brought me to this point. I am preaching on prayer this Sabbath and I was thinking about the things that I do more than pray…I used to watch more TV than pray…I used to watch more movies than pray…I used to watch more sports than pray…I used to play more golf than pray…all those things have basically been eliminated in my life. But as I was writing my sermon today…I realized that whenever I took a “mental break” or a “stretch break” I was simultaneously checking Facebook. Checking Facebook has almost become a default function in my life. I don’t want anything to be a default programmed function in my life other than Prayer, Studying the Bible, Loving my wife, loving my kids, and doing good to others.
So when I realized all this, the nagging sense that I should take a fast from Facebook kicked into high gear. Then sudden intense resistance! I began to rationalize all the reasons I should stay on Facebook. I began trying to convince myself that I could just check it once a day. I wondered, “What will I do without Facebook?” Forgetting I had lived about 30 years without Facebook. But as the resistance grew so too did the determination to leave Facebook behind. I’ve learned that if I am trying to cling to things that are not of the spiritual nature or rationalize existence of those things in my life, then that is a sure sign it is time to say goodbye. So I say goodbye to Facebook today…in just an hour or so to be exact.
Why am I canceling it completely. Because I know myself…Nuff said! 🙂
I may be back someday, of course I took a 40 day fast from MySpace about 4 years ago and never went back to that, so maybe this will be permanent. Not all my time on Facebook has been a waste, but a lot of it has, so hopefully the time that was wasted will now be utilized for the Kingdom of God!
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The Bible In Our Homes: Guest Post Jennifer Pettengill
Greetings Parents, I want to encourage you to read this post by a very close friend of Christina and I, Jennifer Pettengill. God is using her to raise a beautiful child of the Lord and to help others do the same. Thanks for the reminders of this post Jennifer! You can read more of Jennifer’s stuff on her blog: Growing to Know Jesus
The Bible in our homes
The more I read, the more I realize that my job raising Calissa has a lot to do with my walk with God. As I run after God, she will see, He will have victory in me, and He will live out His life within me. We have such a wonderful, patient, and giving Father! Here are some quotes that have given me direction with teaching the bible…
“Even when quite young, children notice; and if the parents show that the Word of God is not their guide and counselor, if they disregard the messages brought to them, the same reckless spirit of, ‘I don’t care; I will have my own way,’ will be shown by the children.” Child Guidance p. 509 “Do not think that the Bible will become a tiresome book to the children. Under a wise instructor the Word will become more and more desirable. It will be to them as the bread of life; it will never grow old.” Child Guidance p. 514 “Parents, let the instruction you give your children be simple, and be sure that it is clearly understood. The lessons that you learn from the Word you are to present to their young minds so plainly that they cannot fail to understand. ” Child Guidance p. 514 “The use of object lessons, blackboards, maps and pictures will be an aid in explaining these lessons and fixing them in the memory. Parents and teachers should constantly seek for improved methods. The teaching of the Bible should have our freshest thought, our best methods, and our most earnest effort.” Child Guidance p. 516 * now we have so many more methods that can be used… “Neglect anything of a temporal nature,(then it talks about unnecessary sewing and such being done away with)…but be sure that the soul is fed with the bread of life…. Make the Bible its own expositor, bringing together all that is said concerning a given subject at different times and under varied circumstances. Do not break up your home class for callers of visitors. If they come in during the exercise, invite them to take part in it. Let it be seen that you consider it more important to obtain a knowledge of God’s word than to secure the gains or pleasures of the world.” Review and Herald, Oct. 9 1883Stretching Beyond 10%
It is Sabbath afternoon and I am sitting here pondering the idea of Sacrificial Giving. Have you ever noticed that in the New Testament that when it comes to the issue of MONEY we as humanity seem to be stretched by God beyond the 10% (tithe) of the Old Testament?
“And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” –Matthew 5:40
“Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” –Matthew 5:42
Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” –Matthew 19:21
“And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” –Mark 12:41-44
“And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.” –Luke 19:8, 9
“And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” –Acts 2:45
In the above scriptures we see at the very least that sacrificial giving seems to be encouraged, if not expected. I wonder though how many of us actually sacrifice? And by sacrifice I mean “go without” in order to give to another, or to give to God through the church.
Some questions I have? Can someone consider themselves a sacrificial giver if they purchase NFL Sunday Ticket? Can I consider myself a sacrificial giver since we bought a brand new Honda Odyssey Minivan? I am just wondering what sacrificial giving really looks like? These aren’t rhetorical questions I am struggling through these thoughts. Is sacrificial giving the moment I “feel” the giving? What if someone is a miser and giving away a dollar is “felt” by them? Is sacrificial giving taking the time to pause the moment I want something and asking can God if He can use this money for other more important things, and when He says, “yes” as He I am sure often would I then sacrifice my wants for the greater good? Is sacrificial giving based on what we have or what we would have if we weren’t so wasteful with our money? In other words is a person in extreme debt off the hook for sacrificial giving, or do they need give based on what they could have if they had used their money in a God honoring way in the first place? Anyone come to a conclusion in their own life?
I know for Christina and I it is not 10%, just tithe, though I am sure for some it is. But 10% for Christina and I wouldn’t even be thought of at the end of the year. So it is more…but how much more?
Here is where I am at right now with this. Let me know if you think this is right or wrong, or if you have a better thought I would love to hear it!?
I try to give now where I have to think about it! And ask the questions I am asking. The moment I get comfortable with what I am giving, we are giving, I think that is the time to give more…that is how we are going about it at this point in our lives. If I don’t feel stretched and I don’t even think of the amount I am giving anymore and ponder it, then I need to raise the bar on my giving.
What do you think? Maybe someone out there has read some things on sacrificial giving. I am open to your wisdom! Please share!