Humor, Joy, Stress

Take your pick, tonight I have something for everyone!

Humor:

Following worship this morning I was standing in the aisle talking to 4 women when suddenly I felt the half-slip I was wearing slip. I looked down, and it was around my ankles. I said, “Well, I’m glad that I’m talking to women.” I then bent down and picked it up and placed it on top of the books I was carrying. There had been no warning, and that slip had always fit well. I really was grateful it happened when it did rather than 10 minutes earlier. It would have been exceedingly embarrassing if it had happened when I was leading worship. Our pulpit is open, so the whole congregation would have seen. As it was, we all laughed about it.

Joy:

I have been here for 12 years now, so I have watched many of youth and young adults grow up. This morning I was sharing praise for the leadership of one of our older youth to his mother. When I told her I wanted to praise her son, she said in surprise, “J?” I told her she shouldn’t act so surprised, but he was always the most challenging of her three children. She told me that he had told her recently that when he doesn’t get to church on Sunday morning his week just doesn’t go right.

This afternoon we reviewed our new model for children’s ministry. We have some post-highs who had been continuing to attend the youth Sunday School Class, so I had pulled them in as leaders for this new way of doing things. The kids love them, and the new leaders are having fun. The one young man, who is 20, gave me fits in junior choir when he was younger. We were discussing ways of dealing with the more challenging kids in the group. I asked him if one of his techniques would have worked for him. He grinned and said, “No.”

He has a big truck with a fancy stereo. He has the bass turned up so loud you can hear him coming. I told him about wondering if he was in front of my house when the cats got trapped in the attic. He was amused. I'm so glad we asked him to take on this responsibility. We didn’t even know if he would be willing to handle the games, but he is having a blast. He has lots of ideas and wants to do more decorating. He’s going to meet with us next Saturday morning to plan next month’s lessons. “I’ll get up and start working the ground at 6:00. I can take a break at 9:00 to do this.” There is so much joy in seeing this challenging little boy grow into a responsible, caring, Christian man. When he left, I heard this loud rumbling. He had pulled his truck (which needs a new exhaust system) up to the open door and was sitting there revving the engine with a huge grin on his face as he waited for me to come out and say something. So I did.

Tonight we had youth group. The kids had wanted to make pizzas, so tonight they did. They also wanted to do a Thanksgiving dinner, and tonight one of the girls came in with the suggestion that they each invite one senior citizen they know to come share our Thanksgiving meal. They loved the idea. We’ll have to sit down and do some planning, but I was really proud of them and their desire to reach out to our seniors. They were pairing up to make their pizzas, and it was wonderful to see them making sure our special needs kids were included and no one was left out. I love these kids. I've known them since they were preschoolers, and it's great to see them growing up and being so thoughtful.

Stress:

Daughter had a low right after breakfast and before worship. She was sitting with a saint who is experienced with diabetes, so I knew she’d be fine. She had another low right before lunch. I cut her insulin way back for lunch. Then about 4:00 she had another low. Since that time she’s had more glucose tabs than I can count, pizza, brownies, pineapple, and peanut butter crackers. Her legs have given out on her, causing her to collapse onto the floor. She’s been bent over in pain, sobbing, as she held her head. We left youth group early because she was so miserable and kept dropping.

When she dropped into the 50’s again and told me she didn’t think she could eat anything else I took her to the ER in Town. I decided to go to the local one 15 minutes away instead of the big one in the City 40 minutes away. I wanted to get there quickly, and I knew the Town one would be faster once we arrived. I was right. When I walked in and showed them her blood sugars for the day, with the majority of them in the 50’s, they had her in a bed before they’d even seen her insurance cards. The ER doctor (who didn’t look much older than the young man with the big truck) wanted to admit her. He called her endocrinologist, who didn’t want her admitted to the adult unit in the City (where local hospital wanted to transfer her). She pointed out that she was due for her once a day shot of long acting insulin, so I should just skip that tonight. I’m to let her eat whatever she wants and check her blood sugar every 4 hours. If it is above 240, I’m to give her some fast acting insulin. I’m to call the endo at 6:00 in the morning to report on how she is and get further instructions, which will probably include being admitted to the pediatric unit in the City so they can figure out what to do with her insulin. We were in and out of the ER in about an hour. As we were leaving, 2 squads came in. The staff in the ER were kind of freaking about 2 squads at once. That’s a lot of action for Town ER.

Since we’ve been home, she’s dropped into the 50’s again. That drop took place when all insulin should have been out of her system. She had glucose tabs, a banana and ice cream. It could be a very long night.