The Rolling Stone

I haven't meant to be MIA in blogland, but the last week and a half have been quite a bit off the radar of "normal" for our family.  This change in schedule has been due to a little 6mm kidney stone that decided to make its appearance painfully known to me last Friday in my right kidney.  I have NEVER experienced such pain in all my life...gall bladder removal and three C-Sections...NOTHING compared to this kind of pain.  I felt like I had a three hundred pound man standing on my back stabbing me with knives.  I endured as much as I could over the weekend and ended up in the emergency room at 1:30 am on last Tuesday morning.  When the triage nurse asked me about my pain using the infamous "pain scale" of 1 to 10, I told her it was an 11.  I wasn't trying to be funny either...the pain was off the charts!!!

After a bag of  I.V. fluids, morphine and antibiotics, I was feeling much better.  I thought I would go home and take my ten little antibiotic pills (to the tune of $200!!!!!) and be feeling better in a couple of days.  Ummmm...NO!  I began spiking fevers up to and over 103.  My highest spiked to 104.4.  I know I sound like I am complaining, but folks I thought I was dying!  Really...I did.  Praise the Lord we have a nurse in our church family who Mike called and she came over right away.  She and Mike got me iced down and in a cool shower and finally after about 2 hours got my fever down to 99.5.

I continued to spike fevers for a couple of days, but not as high as 104.  They seemed to hover around 102 and 101 for some time.  Linda, a.k.a. SuperNurse, took me to her house and took care of me for a couple of days so Mike could at least get some sleep.  I was waking him up during the night in pain and with fever, so me being out of the house helped him get some rest.  He needed it, because he was taking care of the three kids.

So, now I have a consult with a urologist for a possible Lithotripsy to break up the stone.  Another doctor (my third so far) and I am sure more medicine.  We've already spent $200 on the antibiotic and pain meds (that's with insurance coverage!) and I'm sure this doctor may prescribe more in addition to the $100 Uricit-K I have to get filled to help dissolve all the fragments of the stone after the Lithotripsy.  NOT the way we wanted to spend the precious little bit of money we had saved up, but...

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."  Proverbs 16:9

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD'S purpose that prevails."  Proverbs 19:21

 "A man's steps are directed by the LORD.  How then can anyone understand his own way?"  Proverbs 20:24

The Lord has for some time now had me in His classroom teaching me to trust completely in Him and in Him alone.  And here we are again...the Teacher and His student...the Master and His follower...The Great Father and His daughter.  He has been slowly helping me break the ties of this world that would keep me from trusting ONLY Him.  I can't help but trust it is all for some purpose that I can't quite see or understand just yet.

In the meantime, He is taking such great care of our family through our church family.  We had meals brought to us last week and all manner of folks to take care of the kiddos while Mike carts me from doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment.  Thank You seems so little to say, but I'm really at a loss for words in the face of the way our church family loves on us!  It is the next best thing to having my mama here and I mean that!

So, we will see where this road takes us!  I have a feeling somewhere very, very good because He is good ALL THE TIME!

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and will bring you back from captivity."  Jeremiah 29:11-14a

All for His glory and my good,
Jennifer

Craving Grace

Tyndale House Publishers sent me a complimentary copy of Craving Grace by Lisa Velthouse for the purpose of review.  To be quite honest, one of the main reasons I was interested in reading this book was because I had found out Ms Velthouse once worked on staff at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan under the leadership of Pastor Rob Bell.  In light of the recent controversy over some of Mr. Bell's teaching, I was curious to read what a former staffer for him would have to say about grace.

I was extremely disappointed in this book.

Ms Velthouse's writing style is confusing at best.  Her tone is very sarcastic.  I understand she was trying to be genuine in conveying her journey to understand God's grace, but the tone of her writing for outweighed anything positive she had to say.  When she finally got around to actually saying anything about God's grace at all, it seemed a bit contrived.

For the majority of the book, Ms Velthouse whines about her former book Saving My First Kiss and how it hurt her dating life.  And in the end, she seems to equate God's grace with the seemingly good things He does for us or gives to us.  She only "gets" God's grace when everything starts going the way she desires for them to be in her life...her financial debts are cancelled,  the perfect job turns up, a guy starts taking interest in her.

The organization of the book itself was confusing for me.  You never knew for sure if you were dealing with present time or three years ago when she began her fast from sweets in an effort to understand God better and what He wanted from her in her life.  She kept flipping back and forth.

If you are interested in reading this book, I would be happy to send you my review copy.  Just leave me a comment with how to contact you and I'll get with you on an address to send it to.

For anyone else who might want to read the book for yourself, you can order by following the link given below:














Blessings,
Jennifer