Praying For Me

I am grateful to be vertical again. February started with a cough at the Saturday February 5th Presbytery meeting in Williamsburg and went downhill from there. On Monday, February 7th, as we were travelling to Fort Worth for a conference, “downhill” meant I passed out as Laura drove into Oklahoma City. I was diagnosed with influenza A, the family of more severe flu viruses that you don’t want to get. The virus made my heart tests look strange, so bad in fact that the doctors at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital thought I might have severe cardiac disease including heart blockage. After a battery of tests, they concluded my heart was in fact okay, but enlarged (myocarditis) due to this severe flu. We returned home and I returned to church, only to start feeling worse again the following week. On Thursday, February 17th, I was diagnosed with pneumonia and placed in the hospital so that I could receive antibiotics via IV. An Ivie on IV! I didn’t really start feeling like my old self again until Saturday March 12, well over a month since onset. Just in time to start caring for Laura, who got sick with a cold which turned into a sinus infection. I am back at work full time now, but I want to ask for your continued prayers for me. I want you to know that I have tried to learn from this experience and have heard so many of you who have said: “Slow down.” “You take on too much.” “Please take better care of yourself.” Thank you for this gift. I am working on readjusting my schedule. First, I will be setting aside Tuesday afternoons to be out of the office, writing my sermon. I am not used to setting aside time “for myself” like this, thinking that I “should” always be available in the church office. If I am able to stick to this new system (as well as other adjustments I am in the process of making) I hope that I will be able to preach better. But more importantly, I will be following your advice to take better care. I know better now what you already knew about me: I am human. And I also know more clearly that I have some “shoulds” that need to die. As Lent teaches us, something has to die so that we can live in the joy of the Lord. Vertically, David