This has been a wild week for the Wade household for a number of reasons. It started when we were leaving church on Sunday. I got call from the nurse at the assisted living place my 89 year old father is staying at. She said he was not doing well and should go to the emergency room at the hospital. We rushed over and sure enough he was not doing well. He ended up having a severe urinary tract infection and being dehydrated. This is common in elderly people and equally common for this combination to result in the person being very confused, which my father was. The first night at the hospital he was convinced he was in jail and was demanding to see the judge. On one level you have to laugh to keep from crying, but it is a gut wrenching thing to see a loved one in that condition. On another level I got very frustrated because I could not convince him he was in a hospital. My dad is a very stubborn man and at one point I asked him, "What will it take to convince you that you are in a hospital?" He shot back with, "What will it take to convince you that I am not?" My wife Glenda, who was there in the room watching this exchange.....well you can ask her what her perspective was watching this was. :)
When we got home I was stressed. Usually when I am stressed I go for a run but it was to late to do that. What to do? I went out to the man cave (my garage). I have a 37 year old car I recently got that has not been running for about 10 years. It needs a lot of work. The steering does not work but the parts needing repair are covered with a thick layer of oil and dirt. One way of getting that dirt off is taking a single edge razor blade and scraping it off by hand. So I got under the car and started scraping. But before I did I put on a CD of the Psalms that I have. So there I was, late at night, lying under an old car on a hard concrete floor, scraping decades old oily dirt off with a razor blade. Believe it or not, that was therapeutic for me.
However, what really de stressed me was listening to the Psalms. A big chunk of the Psalms were written by King David, and he doesn't mince words. Many of the Psalms are directed straight to God and if he is upset, he tells God he is upset. If he feels like God has forgotten him, he tells him so. If he is mad that someone wronged him.....well you get the picture. Listening to those Psalms really ministered to me that night.
And that is why I am telling you this story. If you are going through it and have not been in the Psalms recently, let me encourage you to go there. As you read or listen through them, I predict you will find one you can really relate to. There really is something for everyone there. And if you do this, and you find a good one, let me know.
By the way, my dad is better and is back at his normal residence.
He still didn't like being in jail though.
