OK So we are not on the road travelling around Australia as we had hoped to be in our motorhome. For us it was never just about seeing our wonderful country and enjoying our retirement, we also wanted to do volunteer work along the way, to worship God in the beauty of the countryside as well as worship in various churches and meet many different people that we'd never get to otherwise meet.
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| The Robbiebago bus on the road |
However God apparently has other plans for us and we have had to curtail our travelling for the time being at least. It started of with learning that truly,
life is unpredicatable: Michelle (yep that's me) was diagnosed with a rare head cancer. Finally I was given permission to go travelling providing I take it easy and have regular check ups along the way. So we began
planning our RV trip to Tasmania. Then whilst in Tasmania I had my first attack of kidney stones and had the first
two of my 5 hospital visits in Tasmania including some operations and one as soon as we get back to our home city.
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| My hospital bed |
We were to be home for a month or so for a daughter's wedding and then we had hoped to head north.
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| Rob & I with our beautiful daughter |
Now it was Rob's turn: Rob had started to notice that he was much more out of breath than was warranted. We followed it up with various tests, sadly it wasn't simple. Rob needed a bypass and a lung biopsy taken at the same time resulted in the diagnosis of Usual Interstitial Pneumonia which, as I understand it, is basically a hardening of the fibrous support around the lungs which stop the lungs from expanding (taking in enough oxygen). This is impeding Rob's recovery from the bypass. There is no cure and it will progressively get worst but at this stage, we have been given no time frame. We have yet to discover what treatments are available and with that we might have more information.
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| Rob recovering at home |
We don't know what God's plan is. I have to remind myself time and time again that God never makes mistakes. We are as He wanted us to be: tall or short, shy or out going, simple or brilliant, practical or imaginative, pretty or plain, healthy or otherwise, etc.
Don't we sometimes wish we could control certain aspects of our lives. I know I have fallen in this trap from time to time in my thinking. "If only ______, my life would be different and possibly better." But really all of our hard-wiring is the result of God’s glorious creative ability. There were no accidents, no glitches, no thoughtless moments. Sadly, most of us are not happy with who God made us to be nor where we are especially when life is not as we wish it to be.
Sometimes the circumstances of life that we have had to endure have moulded us to who we are and the way we respond to life in general.
Hardships, in whatever format they appear whether it be health, death of loved ones, abuse financial strife are part of what makes life difficult at times. By the way that doesn't mean that He is happy when we suffer nor does He bring calamity upon us to 'teach' us or whatever.
We need to have a sense of identity that will not fail us when we're buffeted by the guaranteed storms of this life, we must start at the beginning and recognize that we were made by God and we are very precious to Him.
Stop and think about it as these are powerful and amazing words! Every part of the fabric of your personhood was carefully knit together by God’s creative hands. There was no part of you that was hidden from him. He carefully examined every aspect of your unformed body before you were born.
We don't have to know where we are but we can rest in that we are exactly where we are meant to be. We can trust that God knows the way and that it will eventually lead to him.
