Sunday, February 24, 2008

Uncle Bub

I'm sorry that I have not been updating recently, but it's difficult for me to share that my Uncle Bub passed away Friday night.  Please pray that the LORD would be gracious to his family and friends in this time.  The wake is Wednesday evening and the funeral Thursday morning.

Friday Morning Update:
I talked to my cousin Mike this morning and my Uncle Bub is doing better.  They are now able to medevac him back to Northwest Indiana via jet and will do so at 9 AM tomorrow morning.  My sister and I will be leaving Bloomington sometime tomorrow to go back home to visit him in Horton VNA Hospice Center in Valparaiso where he will be residing.  Please pray for the time that I will have with him.

I also found out that the decision was made by my family to not remove the tumors in his brain.  The likely outcome is that he would "be in the same situation 3 months from now" if these surgeries were successful. 

Thursday Evening Update:
Uncle Bub has been moved to the new hospice center. Aunt Cheryl and her son Mike will be staying in Florida with my Uncle during this time. My Dad and Uncle Ronald will most likely be driving home the vehicle my Aunt and Uncle were traveling in.
Thus says the LORD:
Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
-Isaiah 50:2
Tuesday Afternoon Update:
Uncle Bub is being placed in a brand new hospice center that just opened 2 days ago. For insurance reasons, they have decided to temporarily move him there while they decided whether or not to fly him back to Northwest Indiana. He is speaking less and less as they boost the amount of morphine he's on. Pray that God would be humbling his heart for the Gospel.


Monday Afternoon Update:
Praise the LORD! Uncle Bub has awoken from being unconscious! This is the mighty work of God's hand! His condition is still unstable, and they are thinking about transporting him back in Indiana. Please continue to pray for him and the decisions to be made.

Sunday Evening Update:
My Dad, Uncle, and cousin Mike arrived in Orlando this afternoon and were able to visit Uncle Bub. At this point he is unconscious and has cancer in the front and back of his brain and also in his lungs. My Dad said that he mumbles from time to time, but the words can't be understood. It appears that he is unaware of his visitors as well.

On Tuesday, he was fishing on vacation. Wednesday he came down with some flu-like symptoms and went to the doctor. The doctors passed it off as the flu-bug going around. His condition became intensely worse and Cheryl called for an ambulance Saturday morning where he was admitted to the hospital.


 Original Post:
Last night I received a call from my Dad, which was usual because myparents were coming down to Bloomington today. However, it quicklybecame apparent that something else was up. My dad began to say that heand Mom were not making the trip. Instead, he would be flying down toFlorida with my Uncle Ronald and cousin Mike where my Unlce Bub wasadmitted to the hospital. My Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bub were vacationingthere when he became ill and his condition worsened. A couple of yearsback Uncle Bub battled Melanoma, which is the most serious form of skincancer. As I began to ask my dad some questions, I found out that myUncle had been diagnosed with brain cancer.


My Uncle Bub has not submitted himself to the LORD Jesus Christ, who holds all authority in heaven and on earth. Pray that God would show His mighty hand and work a miracle.
Posted by Lane at 14:33:11 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Apologies

As I'm sure you've noticed, I have exceeded my "monthly transfer limit". After doing some research, I now know that only so many pictures can be viewed through my blog over the period of a month. Hence, I'll be posting a few less pictures and will have to make the stories a bit more fun. My apologies.

Posted by Lane at 16:55:16 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Concert in Bloomington

I can't give much of an update at this point, except to say that I'm busy. We have this amazing concert coming up on Tuesday, much of our class reading to keep up with, and our first paper of the semester for Biblical Theology due before our professor awakes Wednesday morning. I would appreciate prayer for these things, and also a J O B. I got the hospital bill Thursday. Within 24 hours I got a call from Chase after a month of trying to get a job there. The LORD keeps His promises. More later.

Posted by Lane at 15:01:13 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Beautiful Birthday Weather

Last week I celebrated my quarter-of-a-century birthday. I am now a whopping 25 years of age and that definitely has some shock effect. It isn't so much that I am getting older; I've gotten used to that by now. But it was probably the most different birthday I've had in the past few years so I'll share a bit.

Those who know me really well know that I loathe my birthday. It's usually the most depressing day of the year and a cloud covers the whole week. The front came in Monday and it looked to be quite strong. There were a few things ruminating on the surface, but this one glaring thought seemed to hover below: I am a failure. Now this isn't something I feel by the way others treat me or because of worldly accomplishments. It is far from them. It is my perfectionist attitude only expecting exceedingly more of myself than I do from everyone else. In other words, I don't meet my own expectations. What's wrong with this? Aside from never being able to do enough, and consequently an overwhelming sense of guilt, I establish the expectations I have for myself. This will always keep me low and striving to make up what I didn't do, and my birthday, which is a celebration of my life, only reminds me of my failure to meet these expectations. It's never been that the circumstances surrounding my birthday weren't fabulous, but that what was going on in my heart was far from anything godly. But God is greater than our heart.

Here's a quick diagnosis of the problem. First, I shouldn't care about my expectations. God's are the only ones that matter, and God does demand perfection. How does that help me? It reminds me that I can't meet God's pure and holy expectations and I am utterly helpless and hopeless. But there is a gospel of good news. While I fall even further short of God's expectations than of my own, He has given His Son Jesus that I might be considered to have perfectly met God's expectations because I believe in Him. So by faith I trade all of my falling short for all of Christ's fullness.

And that's what happened. The rest of the week you could say the Son came out. I didn't dwell on my own expectations and failings, or even my failings before God, but on Jesus' righteousness given for me. It was one of the best birthday's I've ever had. I wasn't drowning in my own failure, but free to know my sins were forgiven. On top of that, I was able to attend an elder's meeting, which is one of my favorite times of the month. Afterwards, I went out with a couple pastors college guys to celebrate at BW's with some boneless wings and an amazing IU double overtime win over Illinois. What a blessed birthday!

"By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything." - 1 John 3:19-20

Posted by Lane at 15:56:58 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, February 08, 2008

Matthew Smith & Indelible Grace Concert!

Have you ever wondered why I didn't get into radio commerical recording? I have. Well, I finally got to show my skills by recording a commercial for the upcoming Matthew Smith & Indelible Grace Concert with The Good Shepherd Band. Check out the recording, which is now accompanied by my iMovie.

alt : http://www.youtube.com/v/oPA3nkYxAiA&rel=1

So if you thought you heard me on Spirit 95 in Bloomington, you probably did.


Posted by Lane at 16:54:15 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

ClearNote Quotes

One of the amazing privileges of reading really old dead guys is coming across their incredibly insightful, thoroughly thoughtful words of wisdom. My first real introduction to these quality quotes came by way of our Reformation hero, Martin Luther. In his compiled teachings that form A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, I found the timeless testimony of a faithful saint. I wanted to highlight every single page. However, I limited the bright yellow streaks to a few precious pearls. This was just the beginning of the many quotes I have come across since. I have wanted to savor them for myself and share them with others. Though I wanted to do this long ago, I finally decided to record many of these quotes on a blog. It's a place that I can post and organize the quotes and also share them with you.

So if you're interested in what I'm reading and learning, check out ClearNoteQuotes.Blog.Com. And pray that I use proper citation.

Posted by Lane at 01:45:23 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Friday, February 01, 2008

Emergency Room

It's just after 2 p.m. and I'm just waking up. After getting over my head, and then chest cold on Tuesday, I've had some strange symptoms since. Almost two weeks ago I was bitten by a black lab, which was immediately taken to the Humane Society. This fact had me in a bit of scare since I couldn't sleep, was sweating through the night, ached here and there, and had lost my appetite. So last night when I was feeling worse, I decided to look into this mysterious disease called rabies.

My Google search led me first to U.S.A. Today's Health Encyclopedia:
"In humans, the course is similar. After a symptom-free incubation period that ranges from 10 days to a year or longer (the average is 30 to 50 days), the patient complains of malaise, loss of appetite, fatigue, headache, and fever. Over half of all patients have pain (sometimes itching) or numbness at the site of exposure. They may complain of insomnia or depression."
If I'm honest, I'd been feeling pretty down in the dumps. Definite fatigue. I read on...
"Two to 10 days later, signs of nervous system damage appear, hyperactivity and hypersensitivity, disorientation, hallucinations, seizures, and paralysis. Death may be sudden, due to cardiac or respiratory arrest, or follow a period of coma that can last for months with the aid of life-support measures."
So I didn't want to admit my disorientation. It'd been 12 days since I was bit, minus 2 days of symptoms. I check a few more websites, and while they all say rabies cases are extremely rare, I am flipping out. I don't have health insurance, but I've gotta get to the emergency room. I swing by my sister's place just after 1 a.m. and we head to the Bloomington Hospital. While checking my vitals upon arrival, they find my heart rate at a 44. At best, that's a solid 16 beats missing from my heart per minute. Again, "Death may be sudden, due to cardiac or respiratory arrest."

But for some reason, they're not convinced it's rabies. I know they're the doctors, but I'm suspicious. After a bit of pressure to find out what's wrong, they conduct an EKG (electrocardiogram), culture tests, x-rays of my heart, and a variety of blood work. While waiting for the results, some simple stair walks are able to bring my heart rate up to something comfortable. The blood work comes back okay and the x-rays aren't suspect. It's now 5:30 a.m., and the nurse comes in to take out the IV and release me. A moment later the doctor informs me that the last of 4 thyroid blood tests came back borderline - I'm a 6.8 instead of a 5.7. He makes another call to the cardiologist, and finally sometime after 6:30 my sister, who has been sleeping on some hospital chairs, and I are able to leave. The good news is that I don't have rabies. The bad news is the only thing they can tell me is to follow up with a thyroid doctor and a cardiologist. I can't wait for the bill.

Here's what's really interesting. I promised my mom who's been on my case that I would get health insurance by January 31. I entered the emergency room just an hour and a half into February. I don't really know what to make of that, except I should listen to my mom more often. And realize that I'm not invincible. I'm seeing more and more that my thoughts are littered with, "I can do anything and everything." I may not be an alpha male, but I've certainly got the complex. So pray that my messiah mindset would be turned into humility and that I would trust the LORD to provide. Both of these things need to be addressed in my heart and life.

As for my symptoms, I'm doing alright. My mom and I are working on getting health insurance. I don't have a job and have a big, big bill coming soon. I would really appreciate your prayers for these matters. And let me know if you're praying.

He hears.

Posted by Lane at 14:51:55 | Permanent Link | Comments (3) |