Happy Birthday To Me!

Greetings,

Today is my 42 birthday. I mention that because today is a mile marker on the path for my journey home. You see, I have gone through three brain surgeries and each time you get on that operating table there is a chance you won't get back up. I realize that is true for a number of different surgeries. It's just that there is a greater chance for a brain sugary. Having three of them my odds of getting through kept decreasing. Praise be to God I beat the odds. Beating those odds give me a greater appreciation for special times in my life. Today Christine and I give thanks that God has seen fit to give me one more birthday. What a privilege it is to be blessed by God! Today, I would like to share with you some of the great lessons I have learned during my brief 42 years here on this ball we call Earth.

You might say my list would be entitled "Everything I Need to Learn in Life I Learned on the Operating Table".  After living 42 years, surviving three brain surgeries, a back surgery, surgeries on both knees, a tonsillectomy, and a vasectomy, I find myself a little wiser. Through these surgeries I have learned that:

1) Life is never what we expect it to be. Going into my vasectomy I figured that this particular operation was going to be a snap, or a snip, which ever you want to look at it. What I would come to realize was that this operation like a vasectomy, even though it is relatively short, can cause more pain than you think. Actually, I don't know what I was thinking. I just figured that a procedure that was a same day surgery would find me up and around the next day. I was not! I overestimated my tolerance for pain, my ability to heal, and a general lack of positive self talk! Holy Cow did it hurt. I realize that the operation site was located in a rather somewhat sensitive area but, OH MY GOSH!

Life is like that isn't it? Sometimes the greatest pain comes from a source that we would have never expected. A family member does you wrong, a close friend loses you trust, a boy/girl friend breaks your heart. Each one of these scenarios might be handled better if it weren't for the fact that you didn't expect those hurts from those people. Is it true that those events are inevitable? Sure, it's just we don't expect big hurts from people so close to us. I learned a very valuable lesson from that snip, snip, snip, don't ever assume, that just because something seems to be easy, doesn't make it easy! The little thing in life can trip us up just like the big things.

2) The second thing I learned from my surgeries is that we play the hand we are dealt. Being a golfer I like the saying that we "play the ball where it lies". Simply put, I learned that we live our lives with whatever life gives us. On my journey home I have has to come to the realization that I wasn't going to be, or do, some of the things I wanted to do. Growing up I wanted to be a major league baseball player. However, due to choices I made, distractions I let occupy my mind, and circumstances, both real and imagined, I found my self letting that dream fall by the wayside. Am I a major league ball player? No I am not. Could I have been a major league ball player? I suppose, if the stars aligned just right. The truth is this, the dream for myself did not come true. Am I better off that it didn't? How w would I know? All I know is that I am where I am at today because God made it so. I believe that. I am not talking about a God that moves us around like chess pieces on the board of life. I am talking about a God who uses my choices for the good of His kingdom. I can't live my life regretting what I didn't become. I have to live the life that I have today. Because of my surgeries there are things I can't do anymore. I can't play ball with my son as much as I would like. Pain keeps me from doing things I would normally do. Did I get dealt a bad hand in life. I don’t know. I play poker with my friends and there is something I have learned. In poker, as well as life, I have learned that bad hands can sometimes win the pot if you just stick with them. We must try to look at our lives not with the regret of what they could of been but, rather, with the realization of what they are. Would I have wished to be dealt a better hand? Sure, but, to stick with the poker metaphor, I play with the cars that were dealt to me. Living your life with the disappointment of what you didn't become makes us incapable of rejoicing in the person we did become!

3) Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I learned to be thankful for what I have been given. I think this one sounds like the easiest one to do yet, it is the one that we most likely take for granted. As I said before today is my birthday. I give hanks that God has given me these 42 years. I am thankful that I got up off the operating table. He didn’t have to give one more day but He did. And if He has seen fit to bless me with this new day then I am obligated to live it to fullest. I am thankful to have a loving wife. He didn't have to give me Christine but He did. He didn't have to bless me with my children but He did. He didn't have to put my friends and family in my life but He did. He didn't have to send His son to the cross to redeem me but H did. He didn't have to give me a wonderful mother and father but He did. You see, I am not worthy to receive the blessings of God and neither are you. That is why they are called blessings. God doesn't owe us the blessings we receive. God blesses us because He chooses to not out of some sense of obligation to us. We may not know the reason for the blessings. For example I have no idea why I was supposed to endure the pain of surgery and struggle through the rehabilitation that comes with a pharmaceutical addiction from pain killers. What I do know is this, I am here today because of the choices I have made. Is it the life I imagined for myself? No, it's much better. There is a great phrase that I love and it goes, " the devil you have beats the devil you don't. And I like the devil I have." Could life be better for you or me? Sure it could! But it could also be worse. Be thankful for what you do have and not so upset for what you don't. Life is never the way we would always like it to be. But if we give thanks for what we have we will find out that it is greater than our wildest dreams.

I am thankful for another birthday. Turning 42 is a blessing because God does not owe me this day. But since it has been given to me I want to make good use of it. I have shared this story in an earlier blog but I think it fits my situation quite well.

In the movie Saving Private Ryan Tom Hanks and a few of his soldiers are called on to find a young soldier named Private Ryan. He is a paratrooper who has two other brothers in the war. Both of them have been killed and it is decided that Ryan should be found and returned to his home. The army decides that this mother will not lose all of her sons that are fighting in this war.

As Tom Hanks and his small band of soldiers set out to find Ryan they are encounter many Germans and are placed in the middle of some violent skirmishes. After finding Ryan and losing all of his soldiers from enemy fire Tome Hanks is shot as well. Before dying Hanks takes Ryan by the coat and with his last breath said these words to Ryan, :Earn This!"

I have said this before but it is worth repeating. God has given me one more day. He has blessed me with another birthday. I could have very easily not made it through my brain surgeries, but I did. Because I have been given one more day and, because statistics say I should be dead and, yet I am not, I will earn this day. I will seek to do good. I will trust in God's timing. I will choose to make a difference in all that I do and say. I have been given another day I will earn it! Today, I celebrate God's amazing grace! Amen!

Blessings,

Derek