So let's go back ten years in my life...
In March of 2003, I was diagnosed with a chronic condition called Crohn's Disease. After the diagnosis I started to do well with medicine to control it. The few years before that diagnosis were hard. I was sick, anemic, weak, in pain, and most days I had to be near a bathroom at all times. There were a lot of sleepless nights, pain, and weight loss. I have a mild case of this horrible disease.
I started getting tested for things in January of 2003, but after lots of blood draws, urine and stool samples, and other tests, my primary care doctor sent me for a colonoscopy. That's were I got the diagnosis of Crohn's. I was placed on a medicine that seemed to control my Crohn's.
After my one and two year check ups things seemed to be going fine and my gastroenterologist declared my Crohn's in remission. He said to just keep taking the medicine until something changes. If I start to have symptoms again we will take another look at treatment. The upside to this, no Crohn's symptoms; the down side, six pills a day for the rest of my life. Taking pills is much better than being sick all the time. Overall, things have gone well.
Fast forward to April of 2013...
I am sitting in training for a new job and I get a voicemail from the pharmacy that said to call about my prescription. On a break, I call and they inform me that the medicine I have been taking for the past ten years is no longer being manufactured, due to some non-active ingredient in the coating of the pill that is known to cause cancer in rare cases.
Needless to say, that was not a fun phone call. It left me with a lot of questions. So I called my doctor to see what we could do.
Long story short, we found out they made an HD version of the medicine I was taking that was still being manufactured. It was 3 pills a day instead of 6, but that same amount of the medicine. So my doctor prescribed that and referred me to a Gastroenterologist for a long term solution.
I met with the Doctor and he recommended we do a colonoscopy to take a look at things, and that way we would could make a better informed decision as to what to do moving forward. He was optimistic that since the medicine I had been taking was not really designed for my problem area, and was keeping my Crohn's mostly symptom free, that I might be able to stop taking the medicine all together.
That brings us to today, the day of my second colonoscopy. Most adults have no need for one of these procedures until they are in their 50's or so, and I have had two before age 35, joy.
Side Note: If you have never had a colonoscopy they are not fun. The day before, you have to fast (not eat), drink lots of water, and take super laxatives. This is a terrible combination that leaves you feeling awful. The procedure itself is not too bad (because they give you drugs that make you sleep), but the preparing is horrible. I digress...
So after my colonoscopy today, I got great news from the doctor that there were no signs of active Crohn's Disease! He said he is "cautiously optimistic that my Crohn's is completely in remission." He also said that I could stop taking my pills. YES!!!
After 10 years of taking pills everyday I get to stop! God is good and he kicked my Crohn's Disease butt (pun intended). After a 10 year journey with Crohn's Disease, I get to start a new chapter, one with without pills to take. :-) Please pray that my Crohn's stays in remission. Sarah and I have been praying for this ever since we found out that they stopped manufacturing the pills I was taking.
If you took the time to read this, thanks for reading my blog, and I pray that God will bless you and your family.
Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Pharisee Syndrome or Lack of Contentment
In February, I listened to Dan Jessup from Young Life, ask this question while talking to a lot youth workers in Colorado Springs,
"Can you know Jesus, but not really know Jesus?"
What do you think?
I believe the answer is yes.
I have believed this for years. I believe that there are a lot of people who know about Jesus, but don't really have a relationship with Jesus. I believe that this is a huge problem in many churches in America today, but that's another post for another day.
Dan went on talk about how this happened with Jesus' twelve closest followers on Earth. One of them named Philip asked this of Jesus in John 14:8, "...Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."
To paraphrase Jesus' reply, He says, "Seriously Philip? Don't you know after all this time with Me, that if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father? Don't you know by now the Father and I are one?"
How is it possible that after walking around with Jesus for three years, that Philip, and most likely some of the other disciples, didn't know Jesus was God? I mean Philip would have watched countless miracles, and heard Jesus talk about this numerous times. How is this possible? How is it possible today? I mean we have the Bible and history to learn from?
It's possible, because we get caught up in doing things for Jesus and following rules, and the relationship with Jesus gets lost. I call it the Pharisee syndrome. The Pharisees were so caught up in being religious and holy, and following all the rules of the OT, that they forgot that God wanted a relationship with them.
We are usually quick to judge the Pharisees, point fingers at them, and say things like, Jesus was proving to you that He was God and you ignored it, denied it, and then you killed Him, dumb Pharisees. I know I have been guilty of this.
Dan Jessup said this and it rocked my world, "Read the New Testament like you are a Pharisee."
He said that reading the NT this way will make it come more alive, it will be more convicting, and it will create humility in your life that you never had before.
My first thought, was wow! The way Jesus talked about the Pharisees, I don't want Him to feel that way about me. But I started to think about it, I have been thinking about it, and Dan is right. Some of the passages I have read many times have been coming to life in a different way for me.
I think that if a lot of us are honest, there are times when we are a lot like the Pharisees. There are times when we get so caught up with things in life that we forget about our relationship with God, we deny it, ignore it, and we try to do things on our own.
Sure we may not be hung up on the over 600 laws of the OT, because many are not relevant today. But I will tell you this, if your life is anything like mine, life is so busy that Jesus is competing with a lot of stuff for some of your time. I believe that this is how slowly, over time, people know a lot about Jesus, but don't really know Jesus.
Dan went on to say that he believes that many people lack joy in their relationship with Christ and this contributes to people not really knowing Jesus. He said that gratefulness and generosity come from joy in Christ. When we are grateful, we don't whine, and we become more generous. Gratefulness and generosity create contentment, and the Bible teaches us to be content.
People in America do not know how to be content. I believe this was part of the Pharisees' problem as well. They could never be content with how well they were doing following the rules.
The solution to this problem of lack of contentment is that we need Jesus. We need Jesus to rule over every area of our lives. We need Jesus to completely invade every area of our lives. Only then can we know true joy, become grateful and generous people, content in our lives, and our relationship with Jesus.
How about you? Where is your contentment level? Do you need more stuff, more time, more something?
I have been working to change some priorities in my life, because I want to be filled with the joy of Christ. I want to be more generous. I want to be grateful for all that God has given me, and recognize all the blessings in my life. I want the true contentment that only Jesus can give me. Maybe you will join me on this journey?
If you took the time to read this blog, thanks! Please pray for me, and I pray that you will seek God, and allow Jesus to rule over all areas of your life, and that you will find joy and contentment in Him.
Blessings.
"Can you know Jesus, but not really know Jesus?"
What do you think?
I believe the answer is yes.
I have believed this for years. I believe that there are a lot of people who know about Jesus, but don't really have a relationship with Jesus. I believe that this is a huge problem in many churches in America today, but that's another post for another day.
Dan went on talk about how this happened with Jesus' twelve closest followers on Earth. One of them named Philip asked this of Jesus in John 14:8, "...Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."
To paraphrase Jesus' reply, He says, "Seriously Philip? Don't you know after all this time with Me, that if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father? Don't you know by now the Father and I are one?"
How is it possible that after walking around with Jesus for three years, that Philip, and most likely some of the other disciples, didn't know Jesus was God? I mean Philip would have watched countless miracles, and heard Jesus talk about this numerous times. How is this possible? How is it possible today? I mean we have the Bible and history to learn from?
It's possible, because we get caught up in doing things for Jesus and following rules, and the relationship with Jesus gets lost. I call it the Pharisee syndrome. The Pharisees were so caught up in being religious and holy, and following all the rules of the OT, that they forgot that God wanted a relationship with them.
We are usually quick to judge the Pharisees, point fingers at them, and say things like, Jesus was proving to you that He was God and you ignored it, denied it, and then you killed Him, dumb Pharisees. I know I have been guilty of this.
Dan Jessup said this and it rocked my world, "Read the New Testament like you are a Pharisee."
He said that reading the NT this way will make it come more alive, it will be more convicting, and it will create humility in your life that you never had before.
My first thought, was wow! The way Jesus talked about the Pharisees, I don't want Him to feel that way about me. But I started to think about it, I have been thinking about it, and Dan is right. Some of the passages I have read many times have been coming to life in a different way for me.
I think that if a lot of us are honest, there are times when we are a lot like the Pharisees. There are times when we get so caught up with things in life that we forget about our relationship with God, we deny it, ignore it, and we try to do things on our own.
Sure we may not be hung up on the over 600 laws of the OT, because many are not relevant today. But I will tell you this, if your life is anything like mine, life is so busy that Jesus is competing with a lot of stuff for some of your time. I believe that this is how slowly, over time, people know a lot about Jesus, but don't really know Jesus.
Dan went on to say that he believes that many people lack joy in their relationship with Christ and this contributes to people not really knowing Jesus. He said that gratefulness and generosity come from joy in Christ. When we are grateful, we don't whine, and we become more generous. Gratefulness and generosity create contentment, and the Bible teaches us to be content.
People in America do not know how to be content. I believe this was part of the Pharisees' problem as well. They could never be content with how well they were doing following the rules.
The solution to this problem of lack of contentment is that we need Jesus. We need Jesus to rule over every area of our lives. We need Jesus to completely invade every area of our lives. Only then can we know true joy, become grateful and generous people, content in our lives, and our relationship with Jesus.
How about you? Where is your contentment level? Do you need more stuff, more time, more something?
I have been working to change some priorities in my life, because I want to be filled with the joy of Christ. I want to be more generous. I want to be grateful for all that God has given me, and recognize all the blessings in my life. I want the true contentment that only Jesus can give me. Maybe you will join me on this journey?
If you took the time to read this blog, thanks! Please pray for me, and I pray that you will seek God, and allow Jesus to rule over all areas of your life, and that you will find joy and contentment in Him.
Blessings.
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