October 8, 2019, is eight weeks since my hubby fell because his left hip replacement of 2007 came loose, and he shattered the left femur bone. He is still in rehab having therapy Mon. – Fri. Hubby is slowly gaining strength. His surgery was on August 19 – it took a team of doctors to reinforce the femur bone and implant a new hip replacement. All the setbacks have been challenging for both of us.
You may look at your own life and say, “We’ve been faithful to God our whole lives. Why would God allow this to happen to us?” It’s been 64 years for both of us receiving the Holy Ghost in 1955. We’ve both been involved in ministry – I started teaching children in Sunday school at age 14. Hubby has been an ordained licensed minister for 60 years! “Why, God?”.
Jesus said while he was here on earth – “You shall have tribulation (trouble) in this world.” Why? Because we live in Satan’s territory! Because of the sin choice in the Garden, we all are headed to natural death, weaknesses in our body, the evil that may be done to us, sicknesses and natural death.
Our times are in the hands of the Lord. He knows our birth day and he knows our death day (or His soon coming). As I have written before, God knows all the details of our lives because he is God. He promised us that he would never leave or forsake us. Because of His great love for us, God came to earth in human form as Jesus Christ to become the great sacrifice for our sins. Because of the cross and the resurrection, we have a hope that helps us endure the hardships of life.
Jesus could come at any moment for His Bride! In the middle of our adversity, we have hope! Trusting God for strength, provision, peace and comfort, one day at a time. It is not easy! This unexpected experience is hard on my hubby and hard on me. Through these 8 weeks, I’ve been with my hubby 7 – 10 hours day. My nationwide counseling ministry came to a screeching halt with no income. I have many people waiting for me to be available for counseling again. I have to keep up-to-date with our personal business and ministry obligations.
Getting peaceful sleep has been a challenge. Every evening it saddens my heart to walk out the door and leave my hubby in the hands of strangers (the 11 pm – 7 am shift). It is hard for hubby to see me walk out the door – 8 weeks is a long time and it is not over yet (visiting hours are from 7 am – 9 pm). How do we deal with this? One day at a time! When I’m totally exhausted, I do ask for help for the family to relieve me for a few hours.
This will come to an end. Hubby is getting a little stronger each day. His left leg has to double heal from the shattered femur and the new hip replacement. In his normal two hip replacements of the past, he was home within about four days with in-home therapy coming 2-3 times a week. This whole procedure is much more serious. We thank God that he is a 22-year survivor of 4-bypass heart surgery.
For a little bit of humor, hubby is extremely thankful he married a woman nine years younger. I’m extremely thankful to God for excellent health. We both are thankful for our Internet church family who has continually been in prayer for both of us.
Yes, life can be tough! When I feel like I cannot make it another day, God’s grace and strength is sufficient. Yes, I cry out loud to God in prayer! I pray in the Spirit to the Lord – praying in the Spirit is praying God’s perfect will – Romans 8. We thank God for His blessings each day and speak life words into our situation.
We read God’s Word daily. We pray together. We must choose to walk by faith and not by sight. We must look unto Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. Because of the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross to get to the resurrection – Hebrews 12. God will not be in His full joy until He comes to take His Bride to heaven to be with Him forevermore!
Yes, I am physically tired this evening at 6 pm as I write this article. But we are both thanking God for the new strength each day that my hubby is gaining. He is walking with walker/assistance. He does specialty exercise machines. We do not have a goal date for coming home yet, but continually praying for God’s miracle strength to infuse hubby’s whole body!
Whatever adversity you may be going through, remember it is ‘going through!’ We know people right now that are going through cancer treatments, Agent Orange that has paralyzed the body from the neck down for almost 40 years, caretaking for elderly dementia parent, financial difficulties, divorce, and the list goes on.
God tells us to cast all our cares on Him! I’m ‘casting’ daily! His Word tells us to not worry about anything but pray about everything – we do this daily – Philippians 4.
I must choose daily to not allow the devil to flood my mind with toxic thoughts about our present circumstances nor the unknown future! This is the day the Lord hath made and we are to rejoice and be glad in it – now is present tense!
NOTE: In the middle of all this I want to share another ministry project – podcast: www.anchor.fm/rev-carol-clemans – I will be doing a few podcasts weekly. They will be shorter God thoughts to be of encouragement to others.
Please Join my membership teaching site: www.patreon.com/carolclemans – it now has over 40 video teachings for growth/healing spiritually, emotionally and relationally. It can be used for pastors as leadership training for healing helpers as well as helping the hurting. As soon as my hubby gets back home, I will be adding about four new teaching videos per month.
www.carolclemans.org – 500+ articles, few videos, book: GOD’S DESIGN FOR MARRIAGE or eBook: amazon.com. It is based out of God’s Word, teaching marriage seminars and now 49 years of marriage.
www.youtube.com/carolclemans – I need about 700 people to take two minutes and subscribe. I need 1,000 subscribers to teach ‘go live’ on YouTube – they have changed their rules.
Mins. Ref: Pastor Daniel Batchelor, Dupo, IL.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY!