Ok, so I know more than anyone else that at times people are disagreeable. Since my stroke I have had more instances of my emotions being, for lack of a better phrase, wacky. There are times when my kids are enough to drive me crazy (My wife says that is not a drive, it is a short putt). I am just glad to be here to be driven crazy by them! During those times I try to isolate what causes me to get that way and avoid the situation. What I am doing is not avoiding the situation, I am avoiding the emotions the situation causes. For instance, if I feel myself getting irritated, I simply detach myself from the situation as soon as possible. It reminds me of something Jesus taught on the sermon on the mount. He was talking about sending his disciples as sheep to the slaughter. But, the application is the same: Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16) Now, I believe that if every person, in every situation would live by THAT verse, it would virtually eliminate all strife. So, the next time you feel yourself, stroke or otherwise, getting into a situation where the emotions are escalating, remember that we are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Can we honestly say that we can be categorized that way in every circumstance?
Tomorrow I will preach the funeral for a dear friend of mine. He was the definition of a selfless person. I truly appreciated all that he did, but, when I was meeting with the family on Wednesday a memory came to me suddenly and I was suddenly overcome with emotion. Let me back up a little bit: After my stroke in December, 2008 my license was revoked for obvious reasons and it took me some time and practice before I was able to drive again. I finally got my license back in February, 2009. But, shortly after I got my license back the reality of the severity of my stroke became evident: my stroke had seriously impacted the PONS area of my brain stem, and therefore, a lot of my nerves were negatively impacted. One of the nerves that was damaged was the nerve that controls my eye movements; my left eye would would twitch, at times almost uncontrollably, and that made it really difficult to drive, particularly at night. That brings me to the memory that left me so emotional. Fast forwar
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