'Wait patiently for the Lord'

Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

-Psalm 27:14

A followup from the last posting - about dealing with worries. I'm also needing some patience.

I'm currently waiting for my left eye to heal from surgery. As this is being written, it's blurry and not really focused.

So I  could use a dose of patience. I want my vision to be stable now. But the healing process requires time, potentially months. So in addition to bring my worries to God in prayer, I need to wait patiently as my eye heals.

How do you wait patiently for the Lord?

Here's another story of 'A Stroke of Faith'

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

-Psalm 27:14

Mark Moore learned this lesson the hard way. Ten years ago he was hit by back-to-back strokes that could have taken his life. He spent a month in a coma and wake up to find his life forever changed. He re-learned how to walk.

His biggest challenges? One was impatience - recovery doesn’t happen overnight. “It’s incremental … you have to be patient,” he said in an interview earlier this week, coinciding with the release of his new book, “A Stroke of Faith: A Stroke Survivor’s Story of a Second Chance of Living a Life of Significance.” Just to be clear, the book isn’t directly related to this blog with a similar name.

Then again, it’s semi-related because like me, Mark had a stroke at a relatively young age, nearly died and struggled to recover. Also like me, he's finished races during his recovery. A year after his stroke, he finished a 5K (that's 3.1 miles) and went on to run a 10K.

'Be strong and take heart'

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

-Psalm 27:14

Impatience - the story of my life.

I'm better than I used to be but still struggle with impatience. I avoid some things because of it - golf, for example. As an amateur woodworker, I use my hobby as a tool to teach myself patience. It's working, but slowly.

Impatience is a special challenge for many stroke survivors. I know it was (and is) mine. Struggling to read. Struggling for proper speech. Struggling to write clearly.

The best way I've found to conquer impatience is to read verses like this selection from Psalm. Timing is not always ours - often, timing is in God's time.

So think about that when you struggle with impatience. Use this time to build your inner strength - take heart and wait for the Lord.

'In his word I put my hope'

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.

-Psalm 130:5

Hope. My hope. Your hope.

We've all been there, haven't we - waiting, even reluctantly, in hope? Maybe you're waiting now in hope.

Lately, I've had some disappointments and concerns. Knee still bothers me. Other strange, unexplained lower leg pains, twinges and cramps. A friend seems to be having serious personal issues - yet to be explained. And more.

There's only so much I alone can do about any of these or others. Instead, I wait; my whole being waits. In hope.

'Those who wait upon God ...'

Photo by Frank Kovalchek via Flickr

For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, they run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind.

-Isaiah 40:30-31 (The Message)

A couple of postings ago, I complained about nagging back pain. And even though I'm not so young these days, I understand how, as Isaiah says, young people can get tired, drop out, stumble and fall.

Ever feel that way?

As this is being written, I'm waiting for word that my health insurance will cover a shot in the back that, I hope, will help. Complaints about employee-based health insurance delays - thus reducing their own employees' productivity - could take up an entire posting and then some.

But today, it's about waiting. It seems we live in a hurry-up world today. If there's nothing I can do but wait, I need to wait. Not necessarily on human timetables, but on God's timetable. Follow God's timetable will give me fresh strength, as Isaiah told so eloquently so long ago.

Now, will I always get exactly what I want by waiting? Not necessarily. But God's strength comes in many ways, many sizes, many shapes. I must refresh my trust in that.

'... Patient in affliction ...'

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

-Romans 12:12

I'm intentionally repeating these words from Paul today. In April 2014, I posted about my then-recent knee surgery and my need for patience.

Today marks one year plus a day after the arthroscopic knee surgery. I'm still not quite there, but getting closer.

And I'm still thinking about patience today. And, I hope, tomorrow. And so on.

A few months ago, I made an intentional decision to change the way I prayed about my knee. With more confidence. With more patience. It has made those months much easier for me to accept that sometimes, recovery is slow. Today, I feel that I'm a more patient patient.

And more confident, too, that God will take care of me. Do I get everything I want in the deal? Not necessarily. But God will put me in a place where he can use me, all of me, knee and all.

An update one week out

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

-Romans 12:12

A few weeks ago, I posted a note about arthroscopic knee surgery scheduled for April 1.

This is my week anniversary of surgery, and while I can tell my knee problem was fixed, it's still sore and swollen. In other words, fairly normal recovery.

Now, it's a matter of patience. I am not patient person in many ways. I want instant relief, instant fix, instant recovery.

Of course, the world seldom operates that way. Instead, we wait for relief, we sit and try to fill our time for fixes, we spent hours, days, weeks, months and more for recovery. But Paul gave some great advice to his fellow believers in Rome.

We don't always have control - indeed, we seldom have control - over time and recovery. Certainly, there are often - not always, but often - ways to smooth our path for recovery. There are many, many well-trained health professionals who can help. And in many instances, using patience will bring about more lasting recuperation.

So in my recovery, I do pray that I can be joyful in hope, patient in my affliction, and faithful to pray.