When Jesus Failed an Algebra Problem

     I remember those days of Algebra class in High School, with those awful word problems.  I was never good at them, I know they were suppose to be preparing me for real life scenarios  but I struggled to ever get them right.  I think Jesus did too.  He was presented this problem.  Five thousand men, plus women and children are hungry and have no food.  All that is available to feed them is five loaves of bread and two fish.  How many people can be fed? (Story found in Matthew14:15-21)

    Well, if you stretched it out maybe a handful could get a fish sandwich, and a few people could just have a slice of bread.  But Jesus takes it and gives thanks for it, and then breaks it.  He broke more than the bread.  He broke mathematical logic and patterns. His answer was; five loaves and two fish can feed five thousand men plus the women and children (lets say a few thousand more) plus have leftovers of twelve baskets full.    On the Algebra test, he would have gotten it wrong, but in real life, he got it right.  God is always the God of enough and extra.  In 

II Corinthians 9:8 (CEV) it says, "God can bless you with everything you need, and you will always have more than enough to do all kinds of good things for others." 

    The test giver must have felt Jesus needed a second try at this mathematical problem, because a short time later (Matthew 15:32-39) a little bit smaller crowd needed to be fed. This time there was four thousand men plus the women and children and they had a little bit more food to serve.  They had seven loaves of bread a few fish.  How many can it feed?  Again Jesus broke the rules, and it fed everyone, and all were satisfied and had their fill.  I've known a few people in life, that it takes more than a small piece of bread to have their appetite satisfied.  I'm sure there was a few in this crowd.  But they  were all satisfied, they all had enough, and they even had seven large baskets full of left overs.

  God is not El Cheapo, or El Stingy.  He is the God that is more than enough, in Hebrew  El Shaddai.  He's the God of enough and extra.  

    

So How Was Your Day

 “So how was your day?” Is a common question asked between spouses  as they gather back home, after their day of work, and living.    The real communicative types give you the complete run down, minute by minute of the day, well others reply with a ‘fine.’   

    But for the widow living alone, she no longer has anyone to ask, ‘so how was your day?’  She longs to connect with someone, some living breathing body, just so she can tell them about her day. Nothing earth shattering, she might only tell them about the routine things she did through out the day.  But she still longs to tell.  Why?  Because she misses belonging, she misses being reassured that what she does is important to someone else.  

    She reaches for the phone and calls a friend, or maybe one of the kids, who just kind of like roll their eyes at her trivial chatter on the other end.  Nothing earth moving, just, she went to the store, she did laundry, etc, but what she’s really saying is, “I’m still living.  I’m still here, tell me I’m significant to you.”  She’s lost the one that made her feel special, important, one of a kind.   She’s wanting to still belong.

    Is she wrong in these feelings?  No.  We’re all made to belong and be part of each other’s lives.  She had that, and now it’s gone, and she struggles to know how to adjust.    

   So reach out to the widows around you, even if they’ve been a widow for a long time, as well as those who just became one.  They need to know they’re still valuable, even though their spouse is gone.  They search for significance , and are traveling down a road they’ve never been on before.  It’s a really tough, lonely road too.  So be kind.  And if you’re married, and your spouse asks you how was your day, be grateful you have someone that’s asking.  You’re both important.

Piled in the Basement

   

 I made a quick trip down to the basement, to put something back in it's storage place when I saw it all sitting there.  A wheel chair, two walkers, a stair stepping cane, toliet seat riser, and a bed rail.  It was only a couple a months ago, and these were all part of my daily life.  How far I've come, but how scary to see them again, and remember how bad off I was.  Unless you've come through something like I've been through, you just can't understand what it feels like to remember those things.  Yes, I'm rejoicing how well I'm doing now, but I know the pain and work it's taken to get here.  You just see the progress,  I still remember and feel the pain.  The pain of even trying to get out of bed, and pain shooting through my body, as I tried to move, my legs unwilling to go where my brain was telling them to go.  Move!  no response.  Move!  Still no response.  I'd push with my arms and hands, which caused more pain from the blister caused by an IV gone bad.  Move!  Shooting pain in my back, for trying to compensate for the lack of strength in my legs and hips.    This was brain surgery, why then aren't my legs working?  I didn't understand and still don't.   All I felt was pain and frustration.  Nurses and workers and family telling me to cooperate, but I was trying, but my body wasn't responding in the way I wanted it too.

    Yes, I know, I've been out of shape most of my life.  Never been the athletic type, and exercise seems like a disease I didn't want to have.  But now...  I had no choice but to work through painful sessions of physical therapy, while the PT cheered me on for shuffling a couple of feet down a hall way.  I looked like an old man with a runway swagger.  Barely being able to lift my feet more than an half an inch.  They set up 'hurdles' for me to cross.  One inch PVC pipes laid about a foot a part.  I knocked everyone of them out of place, not being able to lift my foot high enough to clear them.  I was humiliated, but determined to do better next time.

      If you would have been in the basement with me, you would have just seen the now unused equipment, but I saw something so much deeper than that.

Goodbye to Handicap Parking

 For the last few months I've called it my free parking sticker. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, just park in the handicap spot. But in reality it was a life saver for me. Even when first leaving the Rehab Center, to walk more than a few feet was painful and a tremendous amount of work, most of the time I was in the wheel chair, and later the walker or cane. That handicap spot was steps saved in my already drained energy level. 

    When my kids went and got the temporary sticker, which by the way has to be prescribed by a doctor, I was surprised at the expiration date. June 9, 2021. So the doctor doesn't think I'll need this past that date. At the time, it was hard to imagine not needing it, but now, it's the one thing I could agree with the doctor about. I won't be needing it any more.

   Using it gave me a whole new perspective on the word 'handicap.' Sometimes, as I had learned so much caring for my husband Todd before he died, you can't see that handicap. Even in my case, to look at me, you couldn't see it at first. But somehow cutting into my brain, caused the rest of my body not to work real well. My legs and hips couldn't figure out how to function anymore, and were so weak, they didn't respond to any signals from my operated on brain gave them. But I praise the Lord, that I no longer have that label of handicap. Even my PT in Bismarck said I was no longer in the fall risk category, so improvement were along with the date arbitrarily chosen by the doctor for length of use of the temporary sticker. Yes, I like that word Temporary, even listed on the card.

   
When I see others now, in that handicap position I know what they're going through. I know what it feels like to wish you weren't having to use the parking spot, or the handicap stall in the bathroom. You want to be free of that label, and need. So please be kind to those who are still needing those spots, they don't really want to be there either, but they need the extra help that closer parking spot gives them, or the extra room in the rest room. Don't block those who really need it, from the ability of its use.