About time too...

Well, once again it has been a very long time since my last post. To make things worse, my last post wasn't even really a post. (I wonder what it says about the usual content of this blog that a short, meaningless joke of a post recieved more comments than most of my genuine posts.) Hmmm, I seem to be using the word 'post' more often than I would like.

So, there have been a number of developments since I last blogged. Two days after that, I went to the hospital to meet with my consultant. He asked me a bunch of questions, and he told me that the waiting list for my surgery was between 6 and 9 months. That kind of sucked. Never mind, thought I, at least I have some sort of time scale put on it now.

Things started to fall into place. Bethany would come to visit on March 4, and leave on March 14. I would go over there for Freshwind on March 20, and return on April 2, ready for work. It looked like the operation would fall in the summer, or possibly at the start of the new academic year. Then I heard this week that I was no longer going to be able to spin at Freshwind. It was bad news at the time, because I was really looking forward to the visit, and I wouldn't be able to afford to pay for it myself. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt at peace, and that the Jesus knew what he was doing. (Man, if only I could always remember that, life would be a lot easier...) I got another phone call today, this time from the hospital. Don't ask me how, but the 6 month waiting list appears to have turned into a five week waiting list, because I'm now due to go in for surgery on February 22.

This couldn't work out better. Not only does it get the operation out of the way, and puts me on the road to recovery, it also seems to fit perfectly with the things that I have organised: I come out of hospital about 5 days before Bethany arrives. Instead of being at work every day that she's here, I'll be off work recovering. I'm praying, and assuming, that I'll at least be able to have some fun that week. Bethany, it seems, is praying and assuming that I will still be sick enough for her to have to look after me... Hmmm, I could milk this one a bit, methinks... Then, I won't be able to go to Canada for Freshwind, but I'd already resigned myself to that one. Because God had told me that there was a reason that I couldn't go.

It's funny how I was so sure of the fact that my surgery would fall over Easter. I'm normally pretty skeptical about things like that, no matter how hard I try to be otherwise. The Mark that's living in the world would usually think something like 'aw crap. I really wanted to go to Canada. Now I can't go at Easter, and I'll probably end up having surgery in the summer, and I won't be able to go then either. Sucks to be me.' But this time I was surprised to find the Mark that's living in the Kingdom taking the front seat, and announcing to a number of people that I wasn't going to Canada at Easter, because my operation would be then.

The moral? Praise the Lord through the good times and the bad, because however bad things might seem to be at the time, the chances are, in God's eyes, they're almost certainly good. He knows what he's doing. Ladies and Gentlemen, will you please give all praise and glory to the Son of God Himself...