Yesterday was a banner day for the Jesus Alliance. We received a huge donation ($250K value) that will provide us with a mammoth database plus all of the hosting charges free of charge. Combine this with another pledge that will pay for the production of our TV commercials, YouTube video and global satellite broadcast ($250K) and don’t forget the $26,000 that we netted on our quail hunt auction and it was nothing short of being a stellar day.
Now if I can just find a donor or some donors to help us develop phase two of our website, ($100K), we will be well on our way to launching one of the largest projects in “Christiandom” all to the glory of God.
So one could have characterized me as being in a celebratory mood yesterday. I was in such a good mood in fact that I decided to go crappie fishing with some friends who had been calling me all day. I did not really want to go because my back was hurting and not in a celebratory mood. It let me know that going fishing with three ruptured discs was probably not the smartest thing I’d ever done, but I was bull headed and figured I could fish for a few hours with no problem.
Boink! Wrong!
I hadn’t been fishing but a few minutes before I told them I was going back to shore. I drove the pontoon boat toward the shoreline and gently landed it on the sandy beach of Honey Lake. I invited them to use the boat and fish as long as they liked, but I needed to go lie down on a heating pad.
Then I did something really dumb. Without so much as giving it a thought I walked to the front of the boat and jumped down onto the bank.
Yeow!
Red hot pain blinded me as it shot up and down my injured spine. I thought I might pass out and/or throw up, but after a moment or two it subsided enough to allow me to walk to my truck and drive up the hill to my house.
I walked in the house and told my wife what happened and she was not sympathetic. She started berating me and scolding me like a magpie as I walked right by her towards the couch where I turned on the heating pad and tried to tune her out. Just then I received a text from another friend of mine who asked how we had done on the fishing. I texted him back and told him what had happened to my back.
He called me an idiot!
By now I’m asking myself, “Where’s the love”?
My back is still very sore this morning. I was thinking of the excitement of the donations yesterday as compared to the searing hot pain shooting down my spine just a few minutes later.
It reminded me of days gone by when I used to drink alcohol. I remember one incident in particular where I’d just won a huge multi-million dollar business deal and I was so excited that I just had to go out and celebrate. I ended up with a DUI that night and was lucky I didn’t crash my car and hurt (or kill) someone including me.
The Bible teaches that we should do everything in moderation.
Huh?
I don’t even know what that word means. I looked it up and the dictionary states that it means: restraint, control, self-control, reasonableness, and temperance.
None of that seems to fit as well as idiot. I’m an idiot . . .
Titus 2:2
Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance . . .
January 20, 2015 – Click here to listen