Craig Bartholomew gave a great sermon on burden sharing within the Christian community at First CRC not so long ago. That sermon really helped put some things into perspective for me. There is a difference between complaining and burden sharing. I've really tried to orient my brain and heart toward sharing of information because I need help from my brothers and sisters in Christ.
Jenn van Breda shows this burden sharing in this post about her family's struggle with HD. My family has been struggling of late too. Many of my friends are somewhat aware of what is going on with my Mom. But this weekend at home deepened things. It has all been weighing on me. So I'm going to blog about what is on my mind, I'm going to share it with you.
At the end of January I wrote this post (read the first half) about what was happening with my Mom. She had been recently diagnosed with Spinal Stenosis. You can check that post for a more clinical description of SS, but the short and long of it for my Mom has been a huge decrease in mobility; to the point where she has been in too much pain to even think about getting out of her bed. Last year wasn't too bad. She recovered in the spring and had a good summer and fall. Then in the fall she started to feel familiar twinges in her back and legs. It progressed rapidly. Many treatments were unsuccessful in relieving her pain or helping her back. The doctors realized that she cannot remain on morphine and Tylenol 3's forever. The most recent Dr., a specialist in Kingston has got her scheduled for surgery.
The surgery is scheduled for this Wednesday. Though she could be bumped to a later date as her procedure is deemed elective. The surgeon is hoping to open her up and grind off many of the calcifications, bone spurs and growths. He will also remove the pieces of floating bone and spurs that are attached. My Mom is quite anxious about this. She had another back surgery when I was 5 that was a similar deal.
My Mom is also reeling from some family issues on her side of the family. Her younger brother, Doug is a bi-polar cocaine addict. When I came home on Thursday my Dad informed me that Uncle Doug was missing. He has never gone missing before. He did come home, around 5:30am and told my Grandparents (whom he lives with) that he had attempted to take his life but was unsuccessful. My Grandma has been paying off his drug dealers and while he was missing it seems he was also betting on horse races. His cheques bounced and my Grandma paid them. Obviously my Mom and her older brother Steve are upset about all that is going on and very torn about what to do.
Also, the church my parents go to has just had their pastor removed. Our family is quite close to the pastor and are hurt and confused by her very recent removal. As a result of her absence the pastoral charge (the two churches she was pastoring) is falling apart, quickly!
My Mother is not a strong Christian. No one in her family is. She had been talking to her pastor about many of these things but she is unable to. Fortunately she is able to talk with my Grandma Stewart and myself about these types of things. She is spending much of her day crying. She has so many questions and so many anxieties. We are trying to encourage her to give all of these things up to the Lord, but it is hard for her. It is hard for me.
So yeah, these are a couple things that I've been wrestling with lately. Thanks.
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