Do you ever wake up with a song running through your brain, one that you can't seem to shut off? That happened to me this morning. Over and over, on a continuous loop through my brain, the Gaither Vocal Band song "Greatly Blessed, Highly Favored" is playing. I'm not sure why. I didn't hear it sung any time recently. I haven't sung it myself. Maybe it's because that's how I'm feeling this morning - greatly blessed.
For starters, my 5-day-long sinus headache, the worst in my recent memory, is gone! That is indeed cause for celebration! Aside from the obvious - the pain of the headache - along with all the accompanying nausea and sensitivity to light and all that stuff (you really didn't want to know that, did you??!!), that headache caused me to do some really stupid stuff!
Let's take yesterday as an example. When I woke up, I was actually feeling a little better than I had felt on Saturday, although that was to be short-lived. Al and I decided that we would stop at Cracker Barrel for breakfast before church. As we were getting ready to leave the house, and as I was gathering up my belongings - Bible, notebook, purse, coffee mug, etc. - I decided that since my medicines, particularly the new arthritis med, need to be taken with food, I would wrap all my pills carefully in a tissue and have them to take with my breakfast at Cracker Barrel. I very carefully placed this carefully folded tissue in a specific pocket in my purse.
And off we went. Since, as you may be aware, it is quite a distance from our house to Cracker Barrel....and to church......and to anywhere, really.....I had time to drink my coffee. After that, I dug into my purse for a piece of gum.
When we arrived at Cracker Barrel, we ordered and ate our breakfasts. And we then each proceeded to get out the pills. That's what old people do at Cracker Barrel, isn't it? (Not that I'm admitting to being old, you understand!) Well, Al got out his pills. I couldn't find mine. I searched through my entire purse, but found no carefully wrapped tissue-packet of pills.
At this point in the story, I should probably mention that I always clean my purse out on Saturday, and get rid of all the gum wrappers and receipts and used tissues and extra lipsticks and all the stuff that really doesn't need to be in there. But on this particular weekend, I didn't do that. Because of The Headache.
Since I couldn't find my carefully-wrapped-packet-of-pills, I dug into my purse for some headache meds, and we went on to church. At that point, I was still feeling some better than I had on Saturday, so I thought all would be well. And it was. Until we got to church and I leaned over to hug a friend who was already seated. At that point, all the pressure in my sinuses concentrated on one spot in the front of my head and I thought I would pass out!! Thankfully, I didn't. We got ourselves into the Dining Hall, where all the adult Life Groups were meeting together yesterday. From the moment the doors to that room opened, I knew I was in trouble. It was cold in there. COLD. Cold enough to, as we say in this part of the country, hang meat!
For the next hour I sat balled up in my chair, trying to get warm and trying to focus, without a great deal of success, on what was being said. Then we headed to the Sanctuary for the worship service, where - you guessed it - it was COLD. Maybe the thermostats were pre-programmed for typical August heat. Except we weren't having typical August heat. It was really cold in there. And being so tensed up into a ball trying to get warm for the previous hour hadn't helped my headache at all.
Al gave me his suit jacket to wear. Which, of course, looked ridiculous. But I didn't care. I was finally beginning to thaw out. Al, however, shivered through most of the service. Bless his heart.
When we got home after church, I expected to find my pill-packet on the table. It wasn't there. It wasn't on the countertop next to the coffee maker. It was nowhere to be found. So, I dumped the entire contents of my purse out on the bed, thinking that in all that junk, I must have just missed the pill-packet. Not there either.
Remember that earlier I mentioned getting some gum out of my purse after I finished my coffee? At that point, the gum wrapper and a piece of a straw wrapper and what I thought was a dirty tissue were all balled together and put in the trash bag in the car. Turns out that wasn't a dirty tissue after all. It was my carefully-wrapped-pill-packet! Which ended up in the trash bag!
A 5-day headache can cause strange behavior!
One more example. On Friday morning, I cooked sausage for breakfast. As I typically do when we have sausage, I cooked the entire roll (you know those little pound-sized rolls that sausage is sold in?). We ate a couple of pieces for breakfast, and the I put the rest in a ziploc bag to be reheated for breakfasts on other days. Saturday morning I opened the refrigerator to get out a couple of pieces of sausage from that ziploc bag. But the bag wasn't there. So I opened the freezer side of the refrigerator. Not there either. And it wasn't in the "big" freezer. Or in the pantry. Or in the microwave. Or in the dishwasher. Or in the cabinets. I have no idea what happened to that sausage. I guess I must have thrown it away. All because of The Headache.
This short blog post has turned into quite an epistle. So, I'll wind things up.
I began this post by telling you that this morning I am feeling greatly blessed. Certainly one of the reasons for that is the absence of The Headache! But that isn't the only reason.
Yesterday we were privileged to have our pastor's father, Dr. John Wilton, bring the message in our service. (We attend what is known as "The Classic Service" at our church.) Our pastor, Dr. Don Wilton, was still on vacation. I was so blessed by the entire service. The preaching. The music. Everything.
Even though I was VERY COLD. And even though I had The Headache. Which just proves that circumstances don't have to be perfect in order to be blessed by God.
Blessed I was. And blessed I am. How could I not be feeling blessed as I continue to think on these verses which were the text of the message yesterday:
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1-2 ESV)
No condemnation.
Greatly blessed. Highly favored.
Indeed.
"To be included in the family of God ought to make us grateful beyond anything we could think of or imagine." - Dr. John Wilton
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