New Life Energy

Praise You In This Storm by Casting Crowns

2009-08-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

Praise You in This Storm - words by Mark Hall/music by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms

I was sure by now,God, that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

Chorus:
And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You
and raised me up again
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on
if I can't find You and as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away

Chorus
I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

Chorus

I Will Not Fall

2009-08-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

In November of 2006 my daughter, Rowynn who was 8 at the time had some pain in her lower left pelvic area. We took her to the hospital and they said there was a stomach flu going around but the area she was pointing to was not the usual place for that. They said to take her home and if it got worse to bring her back. It got worse, we brought her back. The nurse and doctor where complete jerks and allowed our daughter to be in pain for almost 7 hours, with complete mistreatment, before agreeing to send her for a scan. They then found out that her ovary was either swollen or had a large growth. At that time the original doctor came in for his next shift and went off on them, gave our daughter morphin and sent her to Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital in Orlando.

They took her in for surgery the next morning and had to remove her ovary because it twisted over and died. What was supposed to be the size of a walnut became the size of an apple. She is so strong that the surgery was on a Thursday and she was back in school on Tuesday.

I knew she would be OK because before leaving the house we were listening to Z 88.3 a Christian station here in Florida. I prayed to God saying that I needed to hear Praise You In This Storm. Within 5 seconds (literally) the song that was on finished and Praise You In This Storm by Casting Crowns came on and a peace that God was with us came over me.

The month before my mother-in-law passed away and we were still grieving her so we could not deal with another tragedy. God protected Rowynn and she is well and fit.

2003 my family was at the school bus stop and a car did not see the bus stopped and hit my wife and oldest daughter. He was doing 55 and hit my wife directly, threw her in the air and she hit a concrete sign. Then the driver hit the curb and on the bounce caught my daughter, Kaitlyn under his wheel and dragged her about 40 feet before coming to a stop. God again protected them and they left with what would be considered minor injuries and left the hospital the same day. The news called it a miracle. God gave me a feeling of forgiveness for this person because He knew I would have to concentrate on the love for my family and take care of them rather than the anger towards the guy and wanting to hunt him down.

Fast forward to today. Our last two children are miracles because we were told it wouldn't happen again. Since our son, Liam we have tried for another child. That would be almost eight years. We finally decided that it wasn't going to happen and discussed me getting a vasectomy. In the mean time, about two weeks ago we found out we were pregnant, at about 7 weeks and we were exstatic.

I've been exercising because I have always been in decent shape but just wanted to improve my health. On Tuesday I had to go to the hospital because I had been feeling chest pain for about a week. They told me it could be either Angina or a swelling in the lining of my heart and/or lungs. Since my release I have been trying to get a hold of the Cardiac Clinic that is supposed to give me a stress and other tests to no avail. They have not called.

On top of that scare, yesterday my wife had some pain in her lower right side. We thought, and so did the hospital, that it may be appendicitis. We got there at 3:45 PM and finally at 9:oo PM we were told it was actually a spontaneous miscarriage. Devastated we asked that they make the discharge quick so we could come home to our three children and break the news to them. They did not take it well. We were up to 3:00 AM trying to console them. Needless to say we are all wiped out and feeling a great loss. We still love God, we still thank Him for what we do have and we are still Praising Him in this storm. However, our praise is still filled with tears, gnashing of teeth, tearing of clothes and a mouth full of earth from being kicked down again. But like my last post I am standing up, full and upright. I am not sitting down through this one. With the help of God, my family and all of you I will Stay The Course, push on and keep praising out loud.

Thank you God, Amen.

Stand Up Stand Firm

2009-08-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

I had a bit of a scare this past week. I was feeling some chest pain and after a few days decided to get it checked out. After several hours, a few tests, and two hits of Nitroglycerin they sent me home. They said I need more tests but it may be Angina or an inflammation in my lung or heart lining. Either way it scared me enough that I have to take stock of my life and make some serious changes.

I started to think about my life and how I consider myself to be strong, strong willed, a fighter and definitely not a quitter. I always say that as long as you get back up after being knocked down you are not a quitter. Staying down has never been my style. Over the years I have been knocked down more times than I care to mention. So much that I am getting tired of getting back up. Now I tell myself that even though I may be getting up slower I am still getting up.

However, I recently took a good, hard, long look at my life. When I got honest with myself I wondered how I allowed my family and I to get where we are today. I suddenly realized that I am no longer getting back up, that perhaps I am only sitting up. This way I don't have to exert myself and use all of my energy to stand up just to get knocked back down. Also, the fall won't be as far if I am only sitting up. Standing is so much further up than sitting.

Basically, I have decided to take it easy on myself, sit it out and lie to myself that I am not quitting because I am still getting up. So I decided to not take it easy any more. I started exercising, organizing, setting goals, and putting in a real effort to make my life what I want it to be. Now this shot to the chest just makes me realize that I need to take it even more seriously. Even if it turns out to be nothing it scared me enough. For the first time in my life I realize that I am mortal after all. I don't like feeling mortal. I am supposed to be the invincible husband and father.

Right now I have three extremely smart and talented kids that I cannot help facilitate their dreams. My job is going nowhere with very few hours each week. I'm 46 and out of shape, although not too bad for my age. I'm smart, strong as an ox, a real fighter, and scared as hell. Not exactly a great mix. On top of that while my wife and I were considering being done having children because, we have tried for years to have one more with no success and were told it wouldn't happen again, we found out that we are going to have another one. That's right, my wife is pregnant. Now is not the time to find out I'm not indestructible. We are very happy but now concerned for my health.

Basically what I am saying is that I am dusting myself off, pulling off the EKG tabs, sinking my fists into the earth, pushing myself up to a full and upright position. I am Standing Up, Standing Firm and I am telling this gig called life to get the hell out of the way because I am controlling my life and circumstances not the other way around. I hope anyone who comes here to read will support my efforts, cheer me on and while locking arms we can all help each other get where ever it is we feel we need to be. Thanks for listening. Now you all Stand Up, Stand Firm and stay the course. Stop sitting down and lying to yourself and I promise to do the same.

My life

2009-08-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

This is a blog about my life. I am on an adventure to turn things around. My head is full of ideas and thoughts. Life should be everything you want. I am set on getting that and will hopefully teach some of you to do the same thing. Like Zig Ziglar says "you can get everything you want in life by helping enough people get what they want". So from here on out I will do whatever I can do to help anyone get what they want from life. I will start by helping you keep track of things I do that improve my life and hope that you can use some of those same techniques in your own lives to make improvements. I also invite you all to let me know what works in your lives so I can implement them into my routines also. And hopefully those that tune in here can do the same. Thanks for listening, I look forward to years of helping each other.