Good Day Sunshine

Ps. 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
3who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
4who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Grant's test was today and so far the doctor does not think he has what they originally thought he had, which was Myotonic Dystrophy. The neurologist is still pretty sure that he does have some kind of Dystrophy, which he also thinks the other 2 kids have in some form or another, but not this particular strain. Which is both good and "bad". It rules this one out, but it means we still don't know what's going on for sure.

The test was much longer than I had thought it would be, about 2 1/2 hours, but Grant did great. He was laughing through part of it, as the doctor was sending electricity into his muscles and he would jerk every time it would happen. But there was a point that it looked at least uncomfortable. Grant is a real trooper. Poking a needle into your muscles can't feel too good, no matter how easy going you are.

On the way home we did get a small glimpse into Grant's heart. Teresa asked him how he felt and he said that he never feels very good. Then he said, "Well, if I would have died, at least I would be in Heaven, instead of here". Wow, that's a grown up answer for a 17 year old. Selfishly we want to keep him, but he is really correct about that.

It was nice to spend most of the day with Grant and Teresa. The sun was so bright. It's also nice when that first really nice day comes around.

Teresa and I were talking about someone leaving their snowman up in their house, maybe too long. She said she likes to change out the decorations so it seems the seasons are changing as well. She really likes all 4 seasons. I said that it makes those decorations more special when you bring them out the next time, after they have been put away for a while.

When we have our kids, or friends, with us all the time I think it's easy to take them for granted. It makes me think I need to appreciate those that are around me more every day.

Well, you're up to date now.

Praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not ALL His benefits, and they are many,
Chuck

Click here to read the next part, "Too Much 'Good,' Not Enough Heaven"

Don't Be Ashamed-Proclaim

Romans 10:8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

I have had a few pretty interesting conversation in the last 2 days. Both are concerning Grant and the blog. I also am noticing a change in the way I think about telling others about Christ. This is not from me but God is the One doing this work in me. I am normally afraid and ashamed of the Gospel, even though Romans 1:16 says that ...it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,... I still am reluctant to speak. Shame on me.

Now I can tell people about the miracle of Grant's life and then that leads naturally into God is in control and are you ready to die?

I am ashamed that in the past I have not shared more than I did, or at all. One friend of mine thanked me for talking to him about Christ and asked "Since I have known you for more than a year, why is it that this is the first time you have said anything?". Ouch.

Col. 4:2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

God planned this event for Grant and our family to give us courage to share because it doesn't matter what people might say. I told my friend today "I might never see you again". Grant doesn't remember ANYTHING from Sat. morning until Tuesday morning. I hugged him goodbye at church on Friday night and that might have been the last time I ever saw him alive. We need to look at people this way.

We are playing for keeps, there are no "do overs", there are potentially no "decisions I can make later". What are we doing with the life that God has given us right now?

Also in the discussion was, "Every person alive knows there is a God, but we just don't want to deal with it right now". You might not get another opportunity to "Deal with it" later.

God is certainly kind to use us to spread the Good News when He could do a much better job Himself. I don't want to be a slacker, and I hope that you are all encouraged not to be slackers as well.

God had given some new life and those He has given it to need to share with those who don't know the Good News yet. We have the life giving truth, we need to share it.

It's a bit of a stressful time at PG but I am confident that God is in complete control and that's the way I want to keep it.

Pray that we would all be bold and that we would take every opportunity to share His love with others.

Rejoicing the opportunity,
Chuck

Click here to read the next part, "Good Day Sunshine"

Weak and Needy DNA

Ps. 72:12 For he delivers the needy when he calls,
the poor and him who has no helper.
13He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
14From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
and precious is their blood in his sight.

Sorry I'm not keeping up. People keep asking me how Grant is doing so I will try to keep you better informed.

I've heard it said that you can't pick your relatives, but never really thought about not picking your genetics. What God gives to each one of us is exactly what we get. Every last strand of DNA is designed and given by God, WOW.

Grant is a very laid back guy. Teresa and I have been trying not to bug him about how he is feeling, but we are parents after all and that's what we do:) If you ask him, he will say something like "I feel great, the same as before". Which I think is mostly true. We pressed enough to find out that his legs are going numb a little faster than before. We went to Seaside for a couple of days last week and when he was out on the beach and he developed some florescent orange spots on his hands. It was very interesting looking with the purple from being cold, but even though he was very cold he didn't complain.

So armed with those 2 new pieces of info Teresa talked to the doctor and she said that she wanted to reduce his Beta Blocker to half the dosage and this should help both of these. The blockers slow down the heart rate slightly, which slows down his metabolism, which makes him colder and less blood goes to his extremities.

Other than that, he went to school on Monday and seems like he is back to normal concerning the heart issues.

When we were at the ICD doctor's office we were talking to the nurse about doing CPR on Grant and whether this would be performed as "Ninja mom" had done it previously. She said, "Well you shouldn't ever need to do CPR on him again and if the 4 of us had heart attacks in the middle of the night Grant would probably be the only one to survive, because he has 'heart insurance'".

I look at him and am still just amazed at how great he looks compared to just over 2 weeks ago. God is Amazing!

So on to the other 2 kids. Our blood is precious to God, really? It's amazing to me that He cares about our blood.

Kimmy's Eco and EKG are absolutely normal, and her CK is not elevated nearly as much as it has been previously. The CK is a blood test that determines the level of a particular heart enzyme. A high number is 200. At the start of all of our testing Kimmy CK was 1600. So there was some concern that but we couldn't really get an answer as to why this was so high. So today at 300 it looks much better. When we tested Grant the first time he was at 9000 and has been as high as 19k. His is exercised induced, so the more he plays soccer and basketball the higher it goes. This number would normally be higher after a heart attack, and Grant's was 3000 when he was in the hospital, so that is much lower than his "personal best", but still high.
Garrett's Eco and EKG look great and his resting heart rate is around 40, he's in really good shape. But we did just get his CK number yesterday and it is 2000. So there certainly seems to be a genetic link between all the kids. 3 of 3 seems a little too "coincidental' and a lot providential.

We have appointments all over the calendar, but this means that we get to spend more time with Grant while driving to them all. He is fun to be around.

Last night we were all standing around in the kitchen talking. Teresa needs a lot of positive reinforcement right now, ok most of the time:), so she said, "You guys don't appreciate me" and with a huge smile on his face Grant immediately said, "We know". We do appreciate Mom, but we probably aren't telling her enough right now.

Teresa had her Eco yesterday as well as a blood draw for CK. They want to find out the connections of all of this for future patients as well as for our extended family. There must be a genetic link so it is important to figure out how far it goes.

My tests are next week.

Yesterday I received a written letter in the mail from Tom on the east coast. I don't know Tom and he doesn't know me except for the blog and my youngest sister Joy and his wife apparently do some home schooling classes together.

First off, most of us don't write enough letters, or in my case, any. We should do this more. No promises, to those I would write to, as this blog is a big start for me.

Secondly, what an encouragement to get a sweet letter telling of his encouragement for the blog and how he connects with our family because he is a father with sons and we share the same Heavenly Father. This event is truly much bigger than Grant and our family and God is using this little blog to accomplish things that I never dreamed possible. His Word does not return void and His ways are much higher than our ways. I don't have the slightest idea what He is doing in all this, but it's nice to know that He already has it totally planned out, mapped out and scheduled. "I love it when a plan comes together".

Pray for those reading and writing this blog that we would be changed by watching God work in such a dramatic way. That we would not just see this a nice thing that happened to a nice young man, but that we would see God's power shown in a personal way. Remember the markers. You now all should have markers to think about as well.

Thanks for your encouragement and prayers. There are still so many people hurting around the world, we need to intercede on their behalf.

Another great song from Scott and Judy Frankfurt's CD. If you don't have it you should get it.

Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34"For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?"
35"Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?"
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Weak and needy, but God is my Help and Strength,
Chuck

Click here to read the next part, "Don't Be Ashamed, Proclaim"

God Is NOT Busy

Matt. 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Think about sparrows for a minute. They hop and jump and take off for 2-3 seconds and then land again to hop around some more. They are fidgety little creatures. They always have to be doing something or going somewhere.

JZ made reference to this passage this morning. He said that the word for "fall to the ground" is actually "hop". How crazy is it that God knows when every single sparrow takes every single hop. I was thinking that often I think that my problem is insignificant to Him, so I shouldn't bother asking. Well if God knows about the hops of sparrows and He knows how much hair every creature has, or doesn't have, then even the smallest of issues I have, He can and does want to know about. AND He can do this w/o being busy. That is too much for us to understand.

I was talking to one of my friends today, Kyle T. and we were visiting about Grant's event. He said that he had been trying to think about how he would have handled this if this were one of his sons and if they didn't come out of it alive. On the way from the airport to the hospital I had time to think about whether Grant would be alive or not when I got there. I had to keep telling myself that God doesn't give us more than we can handle and that I should think about things I know to be true, rather than to imagine how bad it could be. The really great thing is that God hasn't asked me, or Kyle, to go through that right now. God is good and He knows what it takes to brings people to Himself. When I think back on it I couldn't really imagine how GOOD it could be right now from where it was just 2 weeks ago.

One of our other friends was talking about Grant's event being bigger than just a physical death and resurrection. A couple of things come to my mind here. Every life that God changes from hating Him to loving Him is a resurrection into new life spiritually, which is as big a miracle as physical resurrection. The question is, "why would He actually do that?". We have been hoping that this event will change the hearts of all of us to love God more and she said that her daughter has taken this event very seriously since she really considers Grant a friend and she is looking at her life and couldn't say for sure that if she were the one to die that she would be ready spiritually. God uses the events of our lives to change the lives of others. God uses the events of our lives; amazing!

So pray that people would still consider their eternal destiny when they think about Grant's event.

Pray that we all would trust God's care in our lives in the big things and the smallest details. He is a personal God and He wants to take our cares onto Himself so we can just rest in Him.

1 Peter 5:7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Click here to read the next part, "Weak and Needy DNA"

Laughter Is Good Medicine

 

Eccl. 7:13 Consider what God has done:
Who can straighten
what he has made crooked?

14 When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, a man cannot discover
anything about his future.


Today was the day we went to the cardiologist to find out everything about Kimmy and Garrett, and for Grant to get his 1 week check up.

What a fun day, no really.

We had to get Garrett there just a little early as they needed just a little bit more info from the Eco cardiogram and they couldn't see it from the first one they took. So Garrett had about a 20 minute eco and we were back out waiting for the Dr. to give us the results.

Dr. C. is such a great doctor. She really is taking the kids case seriously, so serious that she is ordering Eco's on Teresa and myself to make sure that we are okay. She told us that Easter Sunday she went home and told her husband Grant's story. She told us that it has been 2 years since see cried at the hospital, but the speed of Grant's recovery overwhelmed her so much that she cried. What a sweet lady.

Anyway, she is happy with Grant's progress and we talked about his ability to drive in the future.

She then talked about Kimmy's eco and said she is good to go and there are no issues on any of the tests she has looked at concerning her heart.:)She will wear an event monitor for about a month just to make sure they catch any thing unusual.

She started to talk to Garrett and she said that she really liked our family. We had been laughing and cutting up the whole visit. She said something like she felt really close to our family and Garrett pops up and says that he is her brother. She is Asian and Garrett is a VERY white red head. She laughed so hard. She said "We were separated at birth, we're twins". Garrett is close to 6' and she is appr. 5'4". As usual, Garrett is saying something funny. The tests all checked out fine for Garrett, no heart issues for him either. Garrett had an EKG and we were done with Dr. #1.

Dr.#2 is for Grant and the follow up on the ICD. She was very pleased with his progress and then we talked to the nurse about the equipment that is coming to monitor him.

This equipment will sit next to his bed wherever he goes. If he goes to Hawaii then it goes with him. For you techy people this is part of what it will do.

It links wirelessly to the ICD while Grant is sleeping through the phone line. It records every beat of his heart and feeds the info back to the Dr. We saw today that he has had no even 1 single heart beat that has been irregular since the implant. How good is God. When the info goes to the Dr. she can read what is going on in her computer and then send back in for to us so that Grant doesn't have to come in every time. She told us that if the 4 of us had an event in the middle of the night Grant would be the only one that would survive. Teresa will sleep easier I think, knowing he has this going for him. He was given the green light to start to golf for real in 3 more weeks so I think he was pretty excited about that.

We are going to have more tests in the following weeks to see if we can find the exact genetic link to all of this. Time will tell.

I got a comment from Grace Mark today. For those of you who haven't read her blog you can follow the trail to get there from the comment. I think you will be more than encouraged. She can give you the newest prayer requests for Andrew from her blog. They are going through deep water right now. Pray for them.

Pray that we would be lights in the darkness. Pray that we would be bold to always give God the glory. Pray that we all would be thankful for what He has done and is doing in our lives.

Laughing with the family,
Chuck

Click here to read the next part, "God is Not Busy"

Christ In You

Col.1:26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

I was just reading tonight in Colossians and came to this verse again. I had considered this before but it is such an amazing truth.

So all through the ages the mystery of Christ was hidden from people until the New Testament time and then God chose to reveal Christ and all that He is IN US. We are the ones who are the light to the world now. We are the only Jesus that the world will ever see.

Why would God choose us to show His Son to the world? How am I doing at being what the world views as Jesus? I don't know why God would choose me to represent Himself to the world.

We need to live like we are His light. We are salt and light to the world. Salt heals and light reveals truth. Are we doing both of those things?

Just thinking onto the computer. I hope this is an encouragement to you.

We have Hope because we have Christ in us,
Chuck

Click here to read the next part, "Laughter is Good Medicine"

Wanna Trade?

 

I have been thinking about how I often trade what is best for what is bad.

Teresa just asked me if I would like some cereal for breakfast, but I know there is some blueberry coffee cake in the kitchen. I told her that I can have cereal anytime, but blueberry coffee cake, that's special, I want cake.
So why am I telling you this? I think I/we trade the best of God's plan for us for something that is banal. We trade the feast for garbage. This is a picture of the dinner table we were invited to in Italy.

I think about work, because I like my work, more than I think about God. As men, we are supposed to work and provide for our families, but at what cost?

I went into work this morning before Teresa got up to drop off some papers and sign some docs and it is a little slow right now. Some of the guys are discouraged by not being buried in work. Previous to this event I would be getting anxious, but now I believe and can say to them, "If God can raise Grant from the dead, He can certainly fill up the schedule at PG". God is working on my faith in areas I didn't really want work on, but He knows best. He is changing my heart.

I don't want to trade anything for what is best anymore.

Many have said to me that they are sorry for what we are going through. I appreciate their sincerity but I am not sorry for this time. Most of the time I really didn't know what to say when others were in a situation similar to this, so this is helping me to be more compassionate to others and to really think about what is the right thing to say.

God has our family in this situation and He will get the glory. I am not sure if this is more to work on my spiritual heart or Grant's physical heart. Maybe this is so others will read the blog and look at their own hearts to "work out their own salvation with fear and trembling".

God has a plan for every single detail in our lives and I don't want to be upset when those details are not the ones I would have planned. I generally want to have everything planned out and then don't mess up the schedule. I have a long way to go in this area.

Phil. 2:13It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. 14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.

When we do what God wants us to do, we look much different than the world does. We just need to continue to ask God to give us the desire to change.

Grant went "golfing" yesterday with the GA golf team. He just putted and chipped his way around the course. It was cold and rainy, normal golf weather here, so he was ready to be done. It is really strange and sweet to see him doing so well.

All the kids go in for an appointment with the cardiologist tomorrow.

Having a good time with the boys,
Chuck

Click here to read the next part, "Christ in You"