Creative Scribble

Sunday was a great learning experience for me. The lesson? Sometimes you have to suck it up and keep on pushing.

At the end of last week I started feeling a little under the weather. As it would turn out, the worst would hit on Saturday night, complete with a fever and unreal body aches. Worst of all, my poor wife got exposed to my whininess when I'm sick! Now usually this wouldn't be too big of a deal in terms of church because if I absolutely had to, I could have "called in" on Sunday morning and the band could have led worship without me and never skipped a beat. But that's because usually I'm the "second string" guy.

Not this week.

...

This was the week that I was supposed to preach twice on Sunday morning, speak Sunday night at the youth group's Purity Dinner, and then head straight to UT for another meeting I had to lead. Being sick and missing any of these three things just wasn't an option. If I had the strength to do it, even if it was barely there, it had to be done!

So I dug deep Sunday morning and squeezed out two thirty-five minute sermons, went home and collapsed on the recliner and ate some lunch. Then it was time to do last minute preps on the purity talk before heading there and then to UT. By the end of the night, I was more than ready for bed but had learned a valuable lesson.

You can do anything for a day!

And more than that, I can honestly say I felt God getting me through each thing. Even though I had thoughts of backing out of any one of these commitments, I knew that they were each opportunities that I needed to capitalize on. So God was literally my strength that we sing about so much in that jingle of a song "Everlasting God."

But for this day, it was more than just a jingle. HE really was my strength and taught me that to live with him is to learn more every day about my dependence on him. Nehemiah 8:10 said it best: "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

I can now say I've done more than learned what that verse says. I've lived it, too.