Lessons From Lying Down
Good Morning,
Recently, I had a pretty major knee surgery. It is not uncommon, but it does not make it any less educational. Here are a handful of lessons I learned in the first week after surgery.
1. Drugs really confuse the mind. I found it difficult to read through a letter or even to write one. The idea of picking up a book and reading for an hour was absolutely out of the question. Although I am thankful for what the pain medicine did to help me go through the recovery process, there ought to be a deep fear in each of us for what these drugs can do to limit us and hinder us from doing the will of God.
2. I found myself restricted to the upstairs of our house, and I learned a little more about the value of certain things like soul winning. I was able to witness to several people: doctors, nurses, and physical therapists – they came knocking on my door instead of me knocking on theirs. I realized how vital the work of soul is. People are going to die and go to hell if we do not tell them the answer. Obviously, I missed several of our regular soul-winning days, as well as church service services; this reminded me that I need to take every opportunity possible to share the Gospel.
3. The importance of church and fellowship. Our culture does its best to diminish the importance of church. Attending church is one of those things that people do if they have time, if there is nothing else going on, and if it fits into their agenda of important activities. This kind of thinking will send the world to hell. I sat at home and watched our church services online. I do not have anything negative to say about the pulpit at Faith Baptist. The young men filling our pulpit are exemplary in private as well as in public. But watching a service online is not the same as attending the church service. It is not the assembling of ourselves together that Hebrews warns us not to neglect. Make church important! When we miss church a few weeks because of health problems, we quickly realize how much we miss it. If we miss a few more weeks, we will begin to not prioritize church as you had in the past – you are headed in a very dangerous direction.
4. One more lesson learned in these first few days after surgery was that the Christian life is urgent! Our Christianity is not just something we do on the side because there is nothing else to do. It is not like Little League, bowling, or even community service. The gathering of God’s people in the place called church is infinitely more valuable and more important than human vocabulary can express - it is vital to the world. Our service in the various ministries of church is urgent beyond words.
Pastor