Tuscaloosa, AL Tornado

This is one of the most incredible tornadoes I have ever seen. This happened earlier today. Pray for the many people and families effected by storms today across the Southeast.

Carrie Underwood Sings How Great Thou Art

One of my favorite hymns of all time and Carrie Underwood along with Vince Gill are just pretty incredible here.

Knee Repair, Boston, & Broken Escalators

Thanks to Dr. Pagnani, a host of healthcare professionals, my beautiful wife, Sondra and to the Great Physician, I am doing well after my second knee surgery in a little over 6 weeks. I seem to have two repaired knees that with a little rehab and strengthening, should be able to carry this body around for many years to come.

Today I wore my 2010 Boston Marathon shirt into the clinic for surgery, mostly to just be braggadocious but also in support of Ron Kramer who is a friend who organizes much of the transportation that supports the race, and for two friends who ran today, Charlie and Herb. They both ran qualifying races today at Boston. Incredible!

I am also including a video called Broken Escalator that depicts two, then three people who get stuck in not being able to see or do anything from a different perspective. May you and I never be guilty of doing that in our lives.

Take a Left, then a Right

So this odyssey began the best I can remember, Sunday night, December 19th, 2010. I found myself on the beautiful Country Club Plaza with my wife, daughters Shelbi and Morgan, and our cousin, Jenny. You can see the four of them on that night in the picture. We were walking along, taking in the sights and smells of Christmas and enjoying ourselves. As we traversed the beautiful sidewalk terrain, I stepped onto a grate and felt both of my feet begin to slide out from under me. Being the cool 47-year-old that I am, I quickly caught myself without getting close to hitting the ground, but spoke these words, "Wow Sondra, I think that is going to hurt later." And . . . I was correct. I have never been a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I spoke futuristic truth that night. A little over a month later, I knew that my knees were not quite right, and then it became very evident that the left for sure had seen better days. A MRI later confirmed a tear in the cartilage and the right one hurt, but was not near as bad.

Rehabbing the left knee has gone wonderfully and in the meantime, I have rehabbed the right knee, hoping to avoid further surgery, but have resigned myself to knowing that fixing the right one is going to need some assistance from Dr. Pagnani. All that to say, that a MRI has confirmed a tear in the cartilage of the right knee much like the one I had in the left knee. Looks like Pagnani is going to get that new sports car this year after all as a reward for repairing both of my knees. I would ask you to pray for Dr. Pagnani. I like him alot. I think he is a great dr. and he has been asking some spiritual questions. Those kind of questions are asked when the Holy Spirit is at work.

I have surgery scheduled for Monday, 4/18 at 830a. And then rehab begins again. I am ready. Ready to not hurt, and ready to see what God has in store. I was thinking I was only going to have to take a left, but now it is obvious this journey includes at least a right too.

Very Good April Fool's Joke

You will like this one.

Confession

My friend, Michael DiMarco, (I guess he is okay with me claiming him a friend) is one of those guys that I enjoy talking life and ministry with once a month or so. I actually do not know him all that well. Well, that is not true. I think I know him pretty well, because in many ways we are much alike. (Sorry Michael.) He recently wrote a blog on confession, or actually when we hold on to our sin. I did not ask his permission, so I will not copy it here, but I will send you to his blog so you can read it straight from him. Click here and you will see what I mean.

Thanks for the friendship Michael and thanks for your thoughts.