Faith Grows Amid Storms

Well, I headed back to the Neurologist for one final visit last week. It wasn't my last visit because my headache is gone, but because we pack out next week and will be on our way to Scott AFB before the month's end. These past few weeks my headache has become more and more centered in a specific area of my head. I shared this with the neurologist as well as the work I have had done with the D.O. and the comments from the Dentist about my jaw being pulled out of alignment. As we spoke it became more and more clear that the pain I am experiencing is from my Occipital Nerve. This nerve runs from the back of my head (down where my head attaches to my neck) up to the crown of my head. The pain I feel daily radiates out from this line. He shared with me that the "Miracle Drug" I received in the hospital would relieve any rebound headache that I was suffering from (which it did) but would not remove the pain from an Occipital Nerve. Bingo! Now... the question is...is my nerve responding to some stimulus (such as tight neck muscles), or is it a myalgia and therefore creating pain where there is none? No matter what the answer is, the next step is pain management. As we see what works and what doesn't, we will have a better idea of what is going on and how to treat it. So there you have it, the latest medical info!

As we transition to Scott AFB, I feel that it is time to turn this blog back into a family affair. SO, this will be my last post all about me. I will continue to put in updates as they come along, but we are going to return to daily life in the Sage household. To close up my time and thoughts on trials and suffering in the life of a believer I want to share one last entry from my devotional book "Streams in the Desert". Please read all the way through. I promise you will be greatly blessed!

"He hath acquainted Himself with my beaten path. When He hath searched me out, I shall come out shining" Job 23:10

"Faith grows amid storms"- just four words, but oh, how full of import to the soul who has been in the storms! Faith is that God-given faculty which, when exercised, brings the unseen into plain view, and by which the impossible things are made possible. It deals with supernaturals.

But it "grows amid storms"; that is, where there are disturbances in the spiritual atmosphere. Storms are caused by the conflicts of elements; and the storms of the spiritual world are conflicts with hostile elements. In such an atmosphere faith finds its most productive soil; in such an element it comes more quickly to fruition.

The staunchest tree is not found in the shelter of the forest, but out in the open where the winds from every quarter beat upon it, and bend and twist it until it becomes a giant in stature- this is the tree which the mechanic wants his tools made of, and the wagon-maker seeks.

So in the spiritual world, when you see a giant, remember the road you must travel to come up to his side is not along the sunny lane where wild flowers ever bloom; but a steep rocky, narrow pathway where the blasts of hell will almost blow you off your feet; where the sharp rocks cut the flesh, where the projecting thorns scratch the brow, and the venomous beasts hiss on every side.

It is a pathway of sorrow and joy, of suffering and healing balm, of tears and smiles, of trials and victories, of conflicts and triumphs, of hardships and perils and buffetings, of persecutions and misunderstandings, of troubles and distress; through all of which we are made more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

"Amid storms." Right in the midst where it is fiercest. You may shrink back from the ordeal of a fierce storm of trial... but go in! God is there to meet you in the center of all your trials, and to whisper His secrets which will make you come forth with a shining face and an indomitable faith that all the demons of hell shall never afterwards cause to waver.
--E.A. Kilbourne

All my love
T

Family Photos

I thought I would take a break and share some recent family photos we had taken. Enjoy!