There are a few things that prompted me to blog this beautiful spring day. The first being that I am so truly grateful on this Easter Sunday. You see April 4th is not only Resurrection Day but April is also my 1 year anniversary since being diagnosed with MS. My pastor this morning preached a sermon on the resurrection as most did but he preached from the last book of John in a manner in which I had never heard before or just spoke so directly to me that it was as if I heard it for the first time. As I am no bible scholar I will paraphrase as best I can so you get the jest of my motivation. In John 21 Jesus appeared to the disciples for the third time. They had returned to fishing and had spent all night fishing to no avail. In the morning Jesus appeared on the shore and asked if they had caught anything. They replied no. He told them to cast their nets to the “right” side and their net became full but did not break. Now, I am not sure if Jesus meant “right” in the literal sense of left to right or “right” in terms of correctness. In this instance I believe either applies. As my pastor went on to explain everyone is “fishing” for something. We are all in search of security, significance, pleasure, comfort, companionship whatever you’re “fishing” for takes the skills of a true fisherman. Those would be patience, as waiting is in the fishing; faith as you hope that when you cast out your line into deep dark waters that there is something below that will attach itself to the “bait” you have set. As my pastor broke down this analogy of “fishing” in the literal sense it became apparent to me that my “net” had been cast. And I did NOT catch what I anticipated. But to understand what I had caught I had to have a faith in something higher than my own understanding to appreciate the true value of my bounty. Today I GET IT! My net = MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS. Yes. What I caught? MY LIFE. You see, as I have said before we give the monster so much power in our lives. I’m not naive. I know there will be days that the monster will win. I have had those over the past week or so (I’m currently on a round on steroids). But we give up the whole dang war on day one! Wars are fought and won one battle at a time. And I lose that perspective daily. Everyone has a cross to bear and MS may be ours but the story says Jesus rose on the third day. So we too have resurrective power. In MS I found my cross but I also found my “catch”. To appreciate the life I have. To live it as I am destined to live. To give as much as I can give to others and most importantly to myself. To not forget that I may lose the battle tomorrow so I better have a strategy for the war, today. To laugh til it makes me pee (those with bladder control issues find that especially humorous). To taste and savor life one heaping spoonful at a time…..[add your own “to’s” here]
So as I crafted this blog post in my head as I had a lovely spring stroll today I was thankful and blessed and optimistic and hopeful and for the first time in many many moths faithful. You see Jesus is on the shore and He already has a meal prepared. We just have to have faith and trust to cast our nets to the “right” side. J
As I did today I encourage no I charge you to find what you are fishing for. Have faith and blindly cast your net to the “right” side. No worries – He WILL fill it. I have a new mantra for this spring, S SQAURED = Spring Stroll: where I connect my sole to soul; my soles to the pavement and my soul to God. I will implement this time to connect the two things that are paramount to my war with the monster – my ability to keep moving and my faith to do so. At least until it gets too hot for me to walk and my increased body temperature makes me exhibit pseudo symptoms. Lol blasted monster!
