Reflections 8/10/2020: Every so often it is valuable to take stock of what you’ve learned thus far in your present chapter of life. Between the challenging knee replacement (and painful rehab), the months of forced chemotherapy for my uninvited cancer, the weeks of itchy allergic reaction, the new normal of incessant nausea, the COVID 19 isolating quarantine, a resistant blood clot that plopped itself precariously in my neck, and now a likely circle back to another knee replacement (ahhhhh!!!), my PATIENCE battery is running dangerously low! Warning light is flashing. Enough is enough! Yesterday while mindlessly placing gemstones on my artwork, I decided I needed some spiritual input. Tuned in to a sermon on Philippians… Paul’s prison-bound epistle on joy in the midst of oppressive circumstances. Much as he would have liked to be “on the road again,” actively sharing the good news about You, Jesus, Paul saw his imprisonment as simply a God-ordained change of venue. Equally as valuable as frontline preaching! His immobility was irrelevant to his ministry of reconciliation. Patience born of a new perspective! Contentment in whatever the “now” presents. Your Spirit spoke to my heart and recharged my PATIENCE battery! You can even use many more months of incapacitation from another knee replacement surgery and rehab in valuable ways if I remember “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” Bars begone! God, You are not limited by my external circumstances or physical impediments!