December 10 – “elf in a freezer?”

Ah … another Sunday spent at home.  I gotta tell you, this really feels weird. I did spend some time trying to do sermon prep to see if I’ll be able to focus enough to preach next Sunday.  The jury is still out on that one.  I couldn’t do anything for very long because sitting in the desk chair put undue stress on the back of my leg, which is still bruised.  It also is still swollen, so the only really comfortable position is when I have it propped up on two pillows.  Add to that the fact that with the pain medication I have a hard time concentrating on one thing for longer than ten or fifteen minutes before my mind starts drifting to something else or I just start nodding off.  Not a very conducive set of circumstances for producing a coherent teaching experience.  That would also be an awkward position to preach from on a Sunday morning, with one leg propped up above my heart.  I do go to the doctor tomorrow for my post-surgery checkup.  Maybe I’ll get some idea about a time line then.  Or maybe I’m just being overly impatient. 

Oh, I had another visionary visitation.  They are getting fewer and farther between, so I’m either getting used to the meds or something is getting better.  This time I saw one of those elf on the shelf critters.  He was icing his newly-replaced knee by putting his whole body in one of those box freezers like my Mom and Dad used to have.  That one might also have been a result of the fact that I was really cold.  66 degrees in the house.  I couldn’t get my body warmed up, which led to shivering, which led to pain in the knee, which led to pain medication, which led to … elf in a freezer visions.

After church Kel and his family came over to share some of Chris’s taco soup that was left over from the Market Saturday.  Oh, and pizza.  There is always the pizza option.  Kel and I eased onto the couch, and he was fast asleep even before I was.  The Texans’ losing ways just couldn’t keep him awake.  Lauren and Cathy came by as well, so I got a pretty full report on the service.  Seems Kel had a visitor join him during the sermon.  Apparently he needed to review what Kel had just taught, so … he did.  Even took the marker from Kel’s hands.  Kel wasn’t fazed by any of it.  He told me he just assumed it was another of the amazing Seaside weirdness-in-ministry factors. 

Psalms 119:41-42 says, “May your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise; then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word.”

Father, thank you for the visitors after church yesterday.  And thank you for their kindness when I could no longer stay awake.  Amen.