A Warning

 

Last post I told of how I was stopped in my tracks to bring me to the place the Lord wanted to speak to me. Walking in the presence of the Lord is not always in our conscience or awareness. There is one more more experience I would like to share with you. It came as a warning of a promise I made and broke. I had been doing all of the cooking since retiring because the wife was still working. I love this because it gives me pleasure and allows my creativity a place to go. I love to experiment with different ingredients and foods. This got me a result that was unexpected.

One of the ingredients I like to use in cooking is wine or brandy. I had sworn off hard liquor after the incident in my last post so it was taboo as an ingredient in my dishes. Fast forward a several decades to 2016. I was looking for something different to use as an ingredient in a recipe. I was intrigued by the TV series "Moonshiners" and decided to see if it would be a good ingredient in a recipe. I found that "moonshine" was available in the State liquor store and bought a bottle. I never cook with anything without taste testing it first. I poured a sample in a shot glass and sampled it. It had a pleasant taste and had little bite to it. What was not expected was how fast to hit me. WHOA! I didn't like this at all. I decided to go out into the flower beds and do some weeding to help get rid of the effects of that shot glass sample. I had a weed that was an eyesore so I tried to pull it. It was resisting so I pulled hard and it snapped sending me in an out of control fall. I hit the ground hard, really hard. I broke the break resistant pair of glasses I was wearing and lay there dazed for a few moments. When I tried to get up I was in pain. I continued into the house and finished making the evening meal. That night was a sleepless one. I couldn't find a position that didn't hurt. The next day I started out for my daily walk of five or more miles and couldn't walk as far as around the block. I went to an emergency care unit twice and they didn't know what was wrong and told me it was just bruising. This went on for two days. I finally realized I was in trouble when parts of my body were turning purple. I told my wife we needed to visit the emergency room. A friend of the family drove us to the hospital emergency room. They took one look and sent me to be scanned. It turned out my lower abdomen was full of blood and there were three broken ribs. I had lost over two units (pints) of blood into my abdominal cavity. The doctor told me I should have died and was lucky to be alive. He asked a surgeon on duty if he could operate to find and fix the problem. He was told it was far too dangerous to do as it could result in death. He said it would take weeks or years to clear up and heal itself. (It was years in healing.) They told me the bleeding had stopped. They sent me home with instructions to rest and take the meds he prescribed. 

The reason for telling you this? My family has experienced alcoholism in it worst form. My grandfather was an accidental alcoholic that would drink anything containing alcohol. He was prescribed a shot a day for a week, a common practice back then. He hung himself one day because he couldn't take it anymore. My promise to not drink any hard liquor was broken with one shot of moonshine. Innocent or not it was a broken promise. The warning was clear. Do not do it again. A promise is a promise. He permitted this to remind me of that promise. This also made me resolve to know my Father in heaven. Part of the reason for my current journey.

There are numerous times in our lives that we are reminded of our failures or sins in ways not always so obvious. It is a form of refining the dross (sin) from our lives to bring us to a better place of acceptance before the Lord. We do not leave this world perfect. I am not God nor do I pretend to know all that God is capable of but I do know that the purging of sin from our lives does not end with death. Yes, we are forgiven through the cross of Christ. It is a long road to us but it is the merest of moments to our Father in heaven. We learn from Him in this life what we are capable of learning. We are finite. He is omniscient and omnipotent. All things are possible through Him. All praise to our triune God. You are not alone in this world and what we experience is not the only time this sort of thing has happened. We all experience correction as part of His family. Give praise in all things and thank the Lord for everything.

May the good Lord bless and keep you safe.

Remember to "Always Love The Details."