Our Hearts are Full of Thanksgiving

Russ was hospitalized for two weeks. I visited him every day. This post could go on and on sharing blessings. I'll control myself and only share a dozen.  I'm thankful for...

• Russ' successful surgery. The cancer is gone! The skin graft on his ear is healing well.

• Russ' surprise early release on Thanksgiving Day. Going from hospital food to Thanksgiving dinner was an unprecedented culinary leap!

• Russ made many friends in the hospital and was able to leave Christian literature with several.

• Russ did not lose ground in his mobility during his hospital stay. We actually had extra time for walking and speech practice.

• Russ' mother is recovering well from her fall and subsequent surgery to replace the ball in her hip. (Proverbs 25:25 Good news from far away is like cold water to the thirsty.)

• I was able to easily get my 10,000 steps a day of walking in because of the commute to the hospital. In fact, 408 of those were stair steps. I'm feeling fit.

• I was able to listen to two inspiring audio books as I commuted (Crazy Love by Francis Chan and The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun).

• It was easy to spend time with God because I was alone so much. My Father and I had rich fellowship.

• I was able to get my work done in the office without stress. (Our house suffered since I only seemed to be home long enough to make a mess and not to clean it up...but, it's coming along.)

• So many people visited Russ that the staff wondered who he was! I thoroughly appreciated all the friends that went out to supper with me on my way home.

• Miraculously I never got exhausted even though commuting on Tokyo trains is an inherently tiring activity. Three and a half million people travel through Shinjuku each day. It's the busiest train station in the world. One day I was meditating on Mt. 11:28-30 and thought, "This is amazing. I'm happy to go to Jesus, but I really don't fell weary and burdened." What a God thing!

• I never got tired of the fascinating architecture downtown. I found several ways to get from Shinjuku train station to the hospital. I chose a few skyscrapers as landmarks and took off finding all kinds of cool artistic nooks and crannies.

New Walking Record

Cancer wasn't part of our stroke recovery plan. But God knew.

Before surgery the medical team marked an arrow to ensure that the correct ear was worked on. That big mole there was the cancerous culprit. Tuesday Russ' lovely nurse, Sato San, wheeled him from the 16th floor to the 4th floor where the surgery was performed. I sat out in the waiting room and had an amazing time talking to the Lord about our lives and then writing my last post.

Thankfully the surgeon was able to do the surgery with local anesthesia rather than knocking him out completely. This made his recovery so much easier. During the operation it was tough lying there still for two hours with a cloth over his face making breathing hard, but he said they let him have a breathing and wiggle break partway through. He looked chipper from the first day!

One of the more challenging aspects has been sleeping. He is not allowed to lie on his left side because it could mess up the skin graft that is getting accustomed to its new home on Russ' ear rather than his chest. He has trouble moving to his right side because that side is paralyzed. That leaves one sleeping position–face up...on a very hard bed in a hot room. After a few restless nights I took him a foam egg crate mattress pad which seems to help.

Another blessing is that another bed in his room opened up and he was able to move to that spot. This position allows him to swing his paralyzed leg up onto the bed without hitting anything. Now he's by a wall rather than in between two other beds. The extra six inches really make a difference.

And now...ta da! Russ is up walking around. Since his stroke Russ has progressed to the point that while he spends most of his time in a wheelchair due to stamina issues, at home he often gets around using his cane. He has even taken steps without a cane. The hospital corridor offers new possibilities. To make a long story short, Russ broke his record for how far he can walk without a cane! See that hallway behind Russ? There's a parallel hallway to it with short connecting hallways on the ends. Russ walked all the way around that circle (about three times what you see!) without any assistance. The hallway has a railing that he can grasp if needed and I walk behind him to grab his gait belt when he gets wobbly.

In the adult day care Russ attends, their concern for Russ keeps them from allowing him to try daring ventures. Our home obviously does not have a long hallway like this with a railing. The nurses here don't know what he "can't do" so give him freedom. By sending us to this hospital God opened up the way for this new adventure. Isn't God amazing?!

A Life of Simplicity

I'm thinking ahead. I spent a big chunk of a day recently praying and seeking God for His vision for my life, specifically for 2012. This is what God said to me: "Live a God-paced life. Ask yourself continually if a particular possession or activity enhances your ability to live a life of simplicity–one purely and wholly devoted to Me."

For the past six years I have been intentionally and sporadically systematically simplifying my life. Initially my efforts were to make my life easier and less stressful. I knew the great question, "Do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you?" One year I kept a calendar to track my efforts. For everything I sold, gave away, or threw away I circled a day on my calendar. By the end of the year I had 365 less things.

Bit by bit God is working in my heart to reveal to me why I crave simplicity. II Cor. 11:3 (NASB) says, "I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be lad astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ."

Donald Whitney* says, "We simplify, not just to be less busy, even though we may be right to pursue that. Rather, we simplify to remove distractions from our pursuit of Chirst. We prune activities from our lives, not only to get organized, but also that our devotion to Christ and service for His kingdom will be more fruitful. We simplify, not merely to save time, but to eliminate hindrances to the time we devote to knowing Chirst. All the reasons we simplify should eventually lead us to Jesus Christ."

One would think that Russ' sinus surgery, stroke, severe infections, irregular heart beat, broken bone, osteoporosis, cancer, and the literally hundreds of hospital visits I've made in the last five years would complicate my life rather than simplify it. Ironically God has used these to sharpen my focus on what really matters. Without a doubt I cherish my relationship with Russ, but God chose me to be single-heartedly devoted to Him. I knew that before 2006 when Russ' health took a nose dive, but now I'm experiencing it in a new way.

I've started working through Cynthia Heald's study entitled Becoming a Woman of Simplicity. She says the purpose of the study "is to encourage [me] to live life the way God has planned." She thinks God's "way is one of inner preace and rest in the midst of a complex and busy world." She sums it up by saying, "My definition of a woman of simplicty is one who lives a God-paced life. She waits for God's leading, and she has time to be still and know her Lord. She has a deep abiding rest in her spirit. She is a woman of profound simplicty because she has only one focus: being simply and purely devoted to Christ."**

I just love the way God uses everything I see and hear to flesh out the message He's trying to get through to me. I was wondering how to purse this life of simplicity when I read David E. Shi's words.*** "The essence of simplicty is not in renunciation, but in discrimination. It requires learning to distinguish between the necessary and superfluous, between the useful and wasteful, beautiful and vulgar...Simplicity requires an individual commitment...rather than a particular standard of living. it preaches contentment and self-control and promises spontaneity and freedom."

I'm writing this as I sit outside the operating room. The doctor is cutting away cancer from Russ' ear and replacing it with healthy tissue. My heart is at rest not because I'm easy going. No one who knows me has EVER described me that way. I'm just enjoying God's sweet presence out here in the hallway and I'm confident that the Holy Spirit in Russ is radiating out to the surgeon and attendants around him. God has called me to trust and rejoice–to simply be devoted to Him.

* Donald S. Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2003), 26.
** Cynthia Heald Becoming a Woman of Simplicity (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2009), 15.
*** David E. Shi In Search of the Simple Life p.6

P.S. The doctor was pleased with how the surgery went. We'll know in a few weeks if it was completely successful.

Paying Attention

How I thank Jesus who is worthy of all power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and praise (Rev. 5:12) for the overflowing basket of blessings He is offering us. We feel no lack of goodness. These days are filled with joy! How can that be with Russ in the hospital awaiting cancer surgery and me trying to juggle so many responsibilities and making the tiring trek downtown each day to see Russ? It comes down to just paying attention. God is continually sending me love notes. I just need to read them.

Russ and I were concerned about him losing mobility during his hospital stay which to us seems incredibly long (2 1/2 weeks to just remove some ear and replace it with a skin graft.) We asked several times about some ongoing mobility therapy in the hospital, but it isn't working out. However, the therapist who regularly comes to our house gave me some helpful tips before Russ entered the hospital. I wrote down the exercises and took pictures so that each day I've been able to work with Russ and he's doing well. He is in good spirits and seems very healthy.

Admission day was a long day! We left at 6:50 in the morning and I got home at around 7:30 that night. I was amazed at how much there was to do. Before going to the hospital I pictured myself sitting around and reading, but it didn't work out that way at all. I was busy getting Russ settled, interpreting for the amazing number of medical personnel connected to his case, and helping him practice getting in and out of a bed that isn't ideal for his paralysis. But it works! He fits diagonally and we're both getting better at tackling situations that aren't ideal.

Russ is in the middle of a room for six so his curtained off area is about six feet by five feet. Our daughter went to Hong Kong on a school trip in 2003. They visited a man whose only living space was that size. Russ' is only temporary. And besides that Russ has a great view of Shinjuku from the dining area window.

A friend came to the hospital and went out with me for supper. Fun! Driving home I was pretty tired and had this craving for a piece of Japanese cake (the fancy bakery kind). I considered stopping somewhere but decided that was not a good idea. I did not NEED cake. I just needed to get home. I kept going back and forth in my mind, but the pull of wanting to get home was stronger than my desire for cake. It just surprised me because I'm accustomed to chocolate cravings, not cake cravings. I could not believe it when I pulled into my driveway and there was Yuki with a little cake box for me saying, "You must be very tired after such a long day."

The next day was 11/11/11. Koreans eat Pocky sticks (similar to chocolate covered pretzels) because they look like the number one. I'm all for adopting delicious customs from neighboring countries! As I was leaving school to go to the hospital I thought, "It would be fun to have Pocky sticks to commemorate this day." Just before I went out the door, in rushed my Korean coworker handing me a box of Pocky sticks!

I just love the way Japanese put beauty in the mundane. They have the most fascinating patterns in manholes, guard rails, and sidewalks. I smiled when I saw pictures of cosmos lining the utilitarian temporary encasement for a construction project.