It's been 5 months since my last post and even longer since my last video. In May I shared my struggles with a pressure sore and the steps I was taking to heal. This included increased time in bed, visits to a wound clinic, acquiring a new pressure relieving seat for my wheelchair, and much time (see post). My sore is now healed, it just took longer to heal then I wanted or expected.

As you can imagine, this greatly impacted my ability to work and made it impossible to make videos. During that time, I kept up with administrative and personal responsibilities as best as I could, but still got significantly behind with only two hours to work on most days. I've been able to resume full time work for the past couple of weeks but haven't been able to resume videos because there was so much to catch up on.

I'm almost caught up now and I'm planning to post a video next week. I'd like to say that weekly videos will resume at that time, but it may be a couple more weeks before I get back to that consistent schedule as I continue to catch up.

While I was laid up, in addition to reading the Bible, listening to sermons, praying, and finding other ways to pass the time, I spent a lot of time watching YouTube. This gave me some possible ideas to improve our videos that I want to experiment with. Those changes cannot happen overnight so expect gradual changes.

God has always been faithful to help me through difficult times, including surgeries, health challenges, and the hardest challenge yet: giving up solid food to avoid aspiration pneumonia. Through these previous struggles, God taught me so much that the excruciating 5 months didn’t seem as bad as some of my previous struggles.

However, I still struggled while I waited for this annoying sore to heal. It was difficult to be patient for those 5 lllllloooooonnnnnngggggg months. I try to be a patient person (after all, patience is a fruit of the spirit), but that is sometimes difficult for me when my work is interrupted or when I need physical assistance. Now imagine how difficult a 5-month interruption to my work is. Thankfully, God used this time to help my patience grow. Now when I am interrupted I just think “at least it is not a 5-month interruption.”

God also taught me ways I can better use my time. Since I only had two hours to work each day, I learned ways to use my time more efficiently. Now I need to make sure that the habits developed over the last five months to help me pass the time do not encroach my newfound (or maybe re-found?) time to work. I need to stay diligent in getting more done in less time.

Here are a few verses related to what God taught me in these areas:

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. – Romans 12:12

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. – Isaiah 40:31

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. – Ephesians 5:15-17

Tribulations and struggles are a fact of life, but in those times, we should have hope, continue in prayer, and trust the Lord to give us strength. It is easy to become tempted to use our time unwisely in those times, trust me, I had to fight those temptations on many occasions, but God calls us to use our time wisely and follow the Lord.

Throughout all of this, God has given me an enduring altitude to keep up the work of ministry and not give up. I think we all need a reminder to look to the Lord so we will continue to do good and not give up.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. – Galatians 6:9