New Normal
October 3
Joshua had to be nervous about his "new normal" as the main point man after Moses died.
God is all over him with these words in Joshua 1:5b, 9
"I will never leave you nor forsake you....Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
Honestly, I'm a little hesitant about where I should spend the days ahead of me. The doctors have no clue what caused this clot to fly to my brain. I'm at the highest risk for a reoccurring stroke in the next three months. I want to be with my husband, but that means spending 11-15 hours alone a day at Shiloh in a community with very minimal medical care, no stroke center and me having a hesitancy to drive.
While the doctor told me I was "normal" last week (I knew that would make our kids laugh, as I've never been normal) life has changed. Where I used to be able to zip along checking the "no" boxes on medical history sheets, now I have to check "stroke." While my "new normal" may look and feel different, absolutely nothing has changed with reference to the Lord being with me! So I will not be afraid, I will not be discouraged, for the Lord is with me wherever I go!
Yesterday, I had yet another new therapist. My sweet husband drove all through the night again to be able to attend my 9AM appointment. Kirsty, with her Australian accent and wealth of knowledge, worked on my muscle alignment and training my right arm and particularly my thumb to move fluidly again. As I would perform movements with both arms, she would stop me to take a look at where things on the left had drifted away. It would take discipline and a conscious effort to do these movements correctly. That made me think how easily we drift off course with our spiritual lives. We must be intentional to stay the course, so that one day we may say...
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1