Life’s Lessons, Gratitude and Redemption

08/06/2024

Life’s Lessons, Gratitude and Redemption

Roundabout Now

After surfing reader this morning I was still trying to come up with something to write about and a couple good ideas were presenting themselves when I came across Mary’s post. Her thoughts were a fantastic read for me and so I thought I would talk about my gratitude.

In past posts I have discussed the church, me and our bumpy, rough road. I have talked about the deadly sins in a series of posts along with poetry on travels to and from hell.

Stories are often told of Jesus dealing with Satan and the deals they made concerning the beliefs of man. Man always seemed to come out on the bottom of these deals.

Let’s Make a Deal

Throughout life I myself have made deals with them both and the price, sometimes extremely steep has always been paid off. Sometimes the interest rate was more than I anticipated but I’ve unwilling paid the dues.

As in the picture above hearts and diamonds seemed to be behind most if not all of these deals with a spade being played at their discretion.

All In

March of 2007 found me in a drunken stupor one night and playing a game of truth and dare with our savior. Can you say ‘fool’?

I had the audacity to challenge the Lord with only beliefs and words the devil could provide and the thought that since I was a player at the table of souls I could hit the hard eight and reap the winnings.

The one sided argument that night found me “dawg cussing” my maker and making promises that soon would be challenged. I had crossed the line of rationality and entered the dangerous realm of lessons to be learned.

The argument was forgotten the next morning as a hangover had me focusing on a headache and then life just kinda played out. About three days later I was walking through my kitchen when a pain I can not describe brought me first to my knees and then to the ground crying in agony.

After a trip to Redi-med I was sent to the E.R. and quickly admitted to the hospital with an abscess on my colon the size of a orange. A port was pushed into my chest for what I don’t know, I do know it hurt like hell. Then a tube was inserted into my right ass cheek and they drained the abscess for a week. After telling me all was good they sent me on my way.

I had just started a new job about a week before all of this happened and when I returned to picking orders for Big Lots I found myself bouncing around on a pallet jack and stand up fork lift. You guessed it, the abscess filled again and I made my way to another hospital where they did a CT scan and promptly admitted me. As I lay in the room the damn thing broke and my blood pressure bottomed out. I was rushed into surgery and read my last rites. They did a colostomy operation and when I woke up I was wearing a bag on my stomach.

The revelation of how and why this happened to me wouldn’t show itself for another couple of years as depression set in along with new senses of insecurities and self pity. I struggled to face each day and could only try to find an ends to the means.

Signs

After that operation I was let go by Big Lots and returned to driving a dump truck for a former company. I would be driving down any road and notice a sign oftentimes referring to forgiveness or other clues to find my way back home.

I’ve found forgiveness and a strength to start living life on a positive journey. I hurdie gurdie each morning before my feet hit the floor and praise the lord for another day to give thanks for such an interesting journey. My colostomy was repaired three surgeries and five years after it happened with the explanation that the first operation should have never happened which I now firmly believe it was the lesson I learned for the unjustly game I played. I wrote about this in a former post without all the detail, if interested you can find it here.