What the resurrection means to me.

Lamentations 3:21-33

21 Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
    while he is young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence,
    for the Lord has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
    there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
    and let him be filled with disgrace.
31 For no one is cast off
    by the Lord forever.
32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
    so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
    or grief to anyone.


This week, my pastor asked me to share what the resurrection means to me.  He shared this at our church's Sunday morning service.

So, what does the resurrection mean to me?  The resurrection changed everything; there is no going back.    However, I can not think about the resurrection without connecting it to salvation.

The resurrection happened because of God's great love.  It is an all-consuming process. The resurrection completely transformed the world and salvation should completely change your world.  Jesus did not die for a select group of people, he died for everyone.  When we accept the gift of salvation it too must affect every part of our hearts and our person.

The resurrection is what God did for the world. Salvation is our opportunity to partake in the resurrection and enter back into a pure relationship with our Father.  As sinners, part of salvation requires we acknowledge our personal sin.   We have to experience the depth of our depravity before we can fully experience the gift we gave been given through his compassion and his lovingkindness.  Therefore, just as God allowed Jesus to suffer and die, we too must go through this purification fire in order to die to our sinful selves.

Part of the resurrection was that Jesus had to bear alone and in silence the weight of the world.  God promises us no one is cast off by the Lord forever.  Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.

So just as Jesus placed his faith that God would not abandon him forever and willingly surrendered his death, we too must recognize in the middle of our trials that we will not be cast off forever.  Experiencing this regeneration of the soul is how we enter into the most intimate relationship with our Father.

For me, knowing how undeserved of this gift I am - and yet God still bestowed his lovingkindness on me - has transformed everything from the inside out. Now my only aim is to please God with every fiber of my body. I can willingly sacrifice comforts and pleasures, dreams, and my life - knowing that every moment I get that to honor God has eternal value.

I am compelled to share this with any one I get a chance. I am no longer worried about others' impressions or my failure, but rather I am focused on fulfilling my purpose.

The resurrection was the ultimate expression of God's love. If we accept it through salvation, we must love God and those around us as He has modeled for us.

One bumpy ride

Dear friends and family,

After enduring five hours on a gurney, basically strapped in the bed of a pickup truck, by the grace of God I made it home. As you can imagine, this trip took quite a bit out of me. Kendra and our families plan on taking some time to recharge our batteries and learn about what our new normal looks like. We understand many of you have a strong desire to connect with us, but we would like to get through the next VERY busy few days and then see what next week looks like. Thank you so much for your cards, emails, and encouraging comments. We are blessed.

Just left CTCA

Thanks for praying us out of here!

More positive news!

Hi there everyone,

We are still here at the hospital, but it is starting to sound more and more like we might be getting out of here this week!  Our surgeon met with Ryan this morning and was extremely pleased with how he's doing.  Ryan has had a couple of really positive days and his paracentesis output has slowed down to absolutely NOTHING since yesterday morning. :)  Incision is doing very well, pain controlled, counts stabilizing, and he's getting much more mobile!  The news that we heard today was that Ryan could get discharged tomorrow to be able to go over to the hotel, and then depending on how he does caring for himself, we could go home - YES, I JUST SAID HOME - the best place on earth - on Wednesday or Thursday. :) :) :) :) :) :)

Please pray that direction!

We love you guys!

-kp

Edit: I also just remembered that Tigers baseball starts one week from today.  Oh my goodness, today is amazing.

Moving forward

Hello everyone,

Another day in the hospital, and another day closer to going home. We are hoping (please pray with us) that we can bust out of here mid to late next week. Ryan is stable, feeling decent, and taking laps quite often. His doctors are pleased with his physical stamina and his pain tolerance. The immediate goal is to get his GI tract started up again so that he can get the annoying NG tube out of his nose; that is not a lot of fun. However, he has a few hurdles to jump before we break him loose, such as some of his counts normalizing a bit.

We have been blessed by the cards, notes, comments, and gifts that have been sent for us and for Colton. I feel like a broken record, but I just want to reiterate that we are feeling the love. We are so appreciative of all of you, and we feel so girded and supported by our brothers and sisters in Christ. This journey is not easy, but we are glad that we are doing it with you by our side.

We are looking forward to a quiet weekend with lots of March Madness and spring training games. We look at each day to spend together as an absolute gift. Hug your family and enjoy them this weekend and thank God for the blessing of family. Alright? :)

He's out of surgery!

Waiting to see him still, but he is out.

Surgeon said that they were able to suture and coagulate the bleeding that was happening in a tumor just outside of the large intestine.  Praise God that there was no need to resect any of his bowel.  There was no bleeding happening when they closed him up.  We are so grateful for the balance that the surgeon took in being aggressive enough to fix the problem, yet delicate enough to not cause any damage to him.

So now what?  Ryan is being moved to the surgical unit to recover for the next 5 to 7 days (could be longer, depending on how he recovers).  We will be trying to make arrangements to come home as soon as we are able.

Oh Lord, you are so good to us and so faithful.  Thank you for loving us extravagantly and for covering us in your grace today.


In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

They found a bleed!

A tumor in the back of his liver has a vessel that is bleeding.  They are going to do a small incision to fix the bleed because they cannot fix it with laparoscopy.

This is the best possible news we could have gotten!

Not out of the woods yet, and surgery should be another couple of hours.

Ryan is in surgery now.

I just said "see ya later" to him at 12:10 Central.

He is totally at peace with whatever outcome we have today. I am as well.

We read Psalm 86 while waiting for him to go back. That is my favorite "trench" psalm. Every time I feel pressed down or about to be destroyed, I read that and I remember that my God goes before me (us) and is my (our) Great Defender. We surrender ourselves fully and completely to His will.


And if our God is for us - then who could ever stop us?

And if our God is with us - then what could stand against us?

Procedure pushed back to around 11 Central

Laparoscopy is at 9:30 Central