Multiple Medical Issues at Once

There may be more than one meaning to the Bible verse that says, "Overcome evil with good."

When you and your husband are facing multiple serious medical and other issues at once and you are tempted to just stay in bed all morning (or at least part of it), one can overcome by getting up. 

Just getting up. 

That is the first step to having a good day even if the day is hard. 

This morning we both got up--he from the recliner in the living room where he had crept about five o'clock when he woke up with shoulders in so much pain he couldn't sleep. 

There he was, under--of all things--my fuzzy pink bathrobe which he'd discovered draped over a chair in the kitchen just when he was wishing for a blanket. 

In the dark he thought it was a blanket! 

Now he was getting up and we had our laugh for the day--despite the tiredness and pain. 

We took the usual morning vitamins and fixed our drinks and coffee before listening to the next chapter in Matthew and having prayer time together--hunkered in our room where it was my turn to pray.

Even in prayer time, when you are overwhelmed and just want to sigh and forget about praying, you can overcome evil with good.

You can just go ahead and pray--and overcome--whether you feel like it or not. 

And then, then we saw the fawn outside waiting for his morning milk. 

I don't know what we'd do right now without this fawn to cheer us with his innocence, need, and antics. 

He will stand on his hind legs for his morning bottle that Jonathan enjoys feeding him sometimes--when he's not away, that is. 

Tuesday he worked in Mission and then traveled to Wounded Knee for some electrical work in the afternoon, staying overnight since he planned to go on to Rapid City the next day for medical appointments and Wounded Knee is already two hours from home, with Rapid City another couple hours beyond that. 

He sent pictures of horses that he said came to visit! 

When I asked how his night had been sleeping on a cot, it hadn't been the greatest. The temperature had cooled a lot, and while he had taken a jacket and pillow, he'd forgotten a blanket! 

Remembering that the parsonage garage had been warmer than the house, he moved out there in the middle of the night--only to have to listen to mice skittering everywhere, including inside the trash can!

So he had a very interesting night. 

He decided to get up early enough to watch the sunrise in the Badlands on his way to Rapid City. 

And he kept sending pictures to family. It's a way to overcome. 

He stopped for a while to have his devotions at the edge of town at a greenhouse that had these petunia trees nearby. It was another way to overcome.

The story of his truck not starting after that stop is another story. He fought it all day and finally left it at the mechanic shop, calling and asking if one of us could drive all the way to Rapid City to pick him up. 

Which one of us did. 

And yesterday morning the mechanics had time to check the truck--only to have it start up just fine. 

We shake our heads.

We know something is the matter, but the problem resolves long enough to baffle the mechanic and us. 

And on top of everything, Jonathan's phone's motherboard suddenly crashed,

burnt up,

went to pot,

however you want to describe it.

He has spent days researching how to resurrect it long enough to transfer data to a new phone--including stowing the old one in the freezer a while.

That trick actually worked for a little bit at least. 

It was a way to overcome.