a stroke survivor story

There are times when God’s work and His timing make absolutely no sense to us. In 2008 when I had my stroke, my family and the church were taken completely by surprise. As the time went on, it was amazing to watch how God used a terrible situation to bring about something that brings Him the greatest glory. God’s provisions in the months after my stroke were absolutely incredible. He has sustained me and my family through some of the most terrible months of our lives. About a year ago, I had mentioned to Laura that there were some things occurring on Sunday mornings and as I interacted with people that might seem to suggest that some of my deficiencies were becoming more evident. What I told her then was that when my deficiencies begin to become almost a distraction, I would know it would be time to step back from full time ministry. Over the next several months, it was communicated to Laura and and myself that I look tired, appear to be having swallowing issues and more diffi

This has really been an issue for a long time, but it seems to be becoming a little more apparent to my family. Last night we were doing some work around the house and my wife asked me several times if anything was wrong. The first few times I was pretty evasive "Nothing. Just tired. I'm OK." After awhile, and after she had asked a few (probably 6 or 7) more times, I finally had to admit that I seem to be feeling pretty spacey, or distant. It's not blood pressure; after I checked it, it was 147/88 - not bad. I have also had a few episodes of a "swimming" feeling; that is when I am sitting still or lying down and the room seems to be a little wavy - it's not spinning like vertigo, it just is an odd sensation that occurs every now and then. It is not constant, and it had only happened about every 6 months since my stroke, but now it seems to be occurring about once ever other week, or even once a week recently. It is just weird, that's all I know. But,

I just got confirmation that my new book, How Big is Your God, is available at Tatepublishing.com.

Admittedly, my posting has been very sporadic of late (oh, who am I kidding, for the last 3 years...) It has been almost 6 years since my stroke (it will be 6 years on December 8, but I am getting waaay ahead of myself), and it seems that some of the side-effects are becoming a little more apparent to others. My wife has had some people comment to her that I seemed to be having problems swallowing during church awhile ago; others have noticed that I look really tired and I have had some tell me that they have noticed that I am having problems with my left leg being weak from time to time. I fell getting out of bed about 6 months ago and wound up with some pretty bad hip pain. When I went to physical therapy, they noticed that ever since my stroke I have changed the way I walk; when I had to relearn  how to walk, I would "kick my left leg out" so that my right leg would not cross over. Over the next 5 years it became second nature to walk with my left leg constantly kicking ou