Successful Year

Today marks the last Sunday for 2020. The next regular entry for the quad life will be next year, just a week from now. I have heard many people say they are looking forward to this year being over, along with all the changes. I can understand the feeling, but it has also been a year of success.

It started unintentionally, but I made a goal of including a picture with every post this year. With this final message, I did make my goal. Some of the topics were a little challenging to find an appropriate graphic, but I think it worked well. Looking back on older posts this year, seeing the image helped me remember what I wrote, even before reading anything. I don't plan to continue the goal for next year, but I do want to aim for at least one picture for every 2-3 updates.

With not much work, and no place to go, I have made a lot of progress in writing my autobiography. I don't remember where I was at in January, but I am now to the end of 2017. Originally, I planned to stop with the end of 2015. However, I decided to add one more chapter as a short summary from 2015 to maybe 2019. The problem with an autobiography is that it is always developing as the writer lives. Therefore, I will definitely stop in early 2020 with the 35th anniversary of the accident. If anyone wants to read further, I still plan to keep writing here. Maybe at some point it will have a second edition, but I'll focus on completing this one first.

Nobody planned to have lock downs this year, but it is what happened all over the world. As a result, many schools, and doctors, quickly adapted to virtual classes and visits. I wrote a few months ago about having an opportunity to work with another college as a result. In January, I am planning to try and contact a few colleges and offer to help virtually. I have no idea if it will be a failure or a success, but I'll do what God allows.

Finally, this year taught many people how quickly life can change. It has been a reminder to not wait to repent of sins and turn to Jesus for salvation. The next day, or hour, isn't guaranteed and we need to always be ready. I don't know what will happen from now until the end of 2021, but God is in control and I trust in Him alone.

Finals

Every day around the world, over 151,000 people die. Many of them likely had plans for the next day, but a sudden heart attack, accident, or some other cause took them from earth. We never know when our end will come our when a regular activity will be the last time it's done. In some sense, that is what I feel like is happening before my eyes.

An annual event at church is the candle light service just before Christmas. In order to try to accommodate more people and maintain social distancing, the service was offered on two evenings. I had hoped to attend one of them, but didn't get to either. Therefore, as I have for the past nine months, I watched the service online while sitting in my bed.

For several years, my church has wanted to build a new facility. After much discussion and fundraising, a new building is under construction and is planned to be in use sometime early next year. This summer, it was also voted to change the name of our congregation. The new name will be used starting in January, with the old identity only being maintained in legal records.

Therefore, as I feel, the church I grew up in and learned to come to the Lord will cease to exist. The last church building I physically walked in and have learned to call my church home will be bulldozed to the ground without a trace remaining. Watching the candle light service was the last time it will be done at this facility as the congregation I knew.

Yes, the same people will be worshiping God together, just under a different name. The location of worship is also not important, but it quickly becomes part of the feel of church. After nine months away, it also feels like I'm only an outsider looking in and not an active part of the body of church.

Watching activities, and regulations, around the country, I also see major changes coming in the next few months. I have concerns that church gatherings will have increased pressure not to meet except in very small numbers. Living the quad life, I also wonder how long I'll be able to live at home and have freedom to attend church.

As we head toward Christmas in a few days, remember Jesus came to save the world through Him. He warned about tough times and persecution, but we can look to Christ alone for peace and joy.

Stick Up

Even with mostly being home this year, I have tried keeping up on doing videos about how I do daily life. This week, I showed my attempt at helping decorate my Christmas tree and the different type of mouth sticks I have used.

One of my dresser drawers has become the collection point for everything stick related that I find. It has extra pads for my mouth grips that get replaced every few months. I also have an abundance of tips that rarely replaced, and a few brand new sticks in case of some unforeseen disaster. However, it also contains relics of times gone by.

Over the years, I have tried, and used, an abundance of different types of sticks. Early on, my parents made them from arrow shafts and molded plastic that I used to grip. It was with these that I learned stick skills while playing with toy tractors, trucks, and building Lego structures. Most were just straight rods, but others were more specialized.

In order to help stack blocks, I had a suction stick that was hollow and had a rubber suction cup on the end. I could plop it on a flat surface, suck, and pick up the item. Another allowed me to push on a button, extend a gripper, and pinch an item to pick it up. Still more had the same button, but would just add more length to the straight rod. However, the button would constantly rub between my teeth, so I didn't care for them very much.

More specialized sticks were available that could hold a pen or pencil and allow writing. By the time I received it though, I had already mastered writing with a pen in my mouth. Finally, after participating in a mouth stick study, I received a stick made for use with touch devices such as tablets or smart phones. It's so heavy though that it is very hard to use.

After a few decades of being tossed around, not all of the archival mouth devices have all of their parts. However, they still provide memories of what God has allowed me to do over the years and even with new technology, a simple rod held by mouth still works best in this quad life.

Decorating for Christmas

If you looked at store displays, if you actually can go in, Christmas decorations start in late summer. I know some people that would even like to have their house ready for the holiday all year long. For me, I want to first recognize Thanksgiving, celebrate the day we have been given, and then decorate for Christmas.

In order to distribute responsibilities, I generally have one of my day assistants do my window lights and the other work on my tree. Therefore, my window lights were up the day before Thanksgiving, but I didn't plug them in until the holiday was complete. That way, I wasn't violating my own rule, at least not entirely.

My train tree has been my primary, if not only, Christmas decoration for many years. Mom discovered the first ornament in the late 80's and has been able to get a new ornament every year since. They are becoming hard to find and more expensive, but they keep coming. With the increase in trains, the tree has also had to get larger in response.

I used to be able to set a small, maybe two-foot, tree on my table and I would carefully put each item on the branches. It would take a fair amount of time to accomplish, but I enjoyed it. Now with limited sitting time, the task would likely take me a few days to accomplish. I also can't reach the top of my larger tree, so I now just let my caregiver decorate while I observe. I no longer participate as much, but sometimes I have to decide what is the best use of time.

After the new year has started, everything will go back into the one large box they reside in for eleven months. While I don't have decorations up all year, I do try to daily remember why we celebrate Christmas. Jesus, God's only Son, came to His creation to reconcile us to Himself, so that we may have eternal life with Him. That is something worth celebrating this week, and every day of the year.

Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving is a great reminder to stop and give thanks for the abundance of God's blessings. However, it is also becoming a time to realize how quickly those blessings can be taken away.

Last year, the holiday was kind of blur of activity. My paternal grandfather had been in an accident and passed away just a few days before Thanksgiving. I had an abbreviated lunch with mom's family before my parents and I joined dad's family at the funeral home. The next two days were taken by the visitation, funeral, and being around family. It made us remember to be thankful for those around us as they can quickly be gone.

With all the restrictions and quarantine this year, I didn't expect we would have much of a get-together this year. We had hoped to have mom's mother join us for lunch, but her retirement home discouraged it and she couldn't come. As has become usual, my parents joined me around the computer in my bedroom to watch the morning church service. I did actually get in my chair for our turkey lunch that mom made for the three of us. After we were full, we went out to the cemetery to put a wreath on grandpa's head stone.

I miss my grandfathers, but I am thankful that everything happened when it did. At his funeral last year, none of us could have guessed what would change in a few months. A number of elderly members from my church, some who I knew well, passed away this year. For the most part, they hardly had any visitation, funeral, or recognition of the life they lived. Small graveside services for family and online obituaries are about all we see. Many Thanksgiving tables were missing most of their extended relatives, and ones that will never return.

No matter what, I am thankful for all those God has put around me. Living the quad life, I have had opportunity to get to know more people than I likely would otherwise. However, it gets hard when some of them are gone and you don't get opportunity to say good-bye. It has been well said that we are living a new normal. I fear more the old normal will not return and lonely holidays with not being surrounded by family will be a distant memory. Any chance you get, be thankful for who, and what, we have been given, before they are gone as well.

More Ups and Downs

Earlier this month, I saw my dermatologist to check on my skin sores. One are still looks basically healed, but the other two are pretty stagnant since my last visit a few months ago. I did miss a few weeks of biking due to caregiver's illness, but the doctor also suggested a change in my sit schedule.

For at least the last three to four years, I have been sitting in bed for 45 minutes and then lay flat for three to four hours before sitting again. It's a schedule I made on my own, but I thought laying flat longer would be the most helpful. Now, my doctor said to try sitting after only two hours of flat time and getting more movement.

Most people get familiar to a set routine, and I'm definitely one of them. Trying to do what I consider a major change has been fun. Instead of getting four sit times during the day, I now get five. Therefore, I have basically increased my day by 25%. I have found myself doing tasks while sitting that I usually did flat, or a combination of both.

I was scheduled to preach next week and have been preparing my sermon, but the service has now been cancelled due to the virus. Instead of looking at my notes and reviewing while laying flat, I have partially done it while sitting. My head says I should be doing something more active while upright, but I am still doing something productive. Work still remains pretty non-existent as well, so I see more book progress in my near future also.

Living the quad life is a careful balance between managing the mind and body. For the one, I stay active in doing activities other than zoning out to entertainment. For the other, it's a game of give and take trying not to make any one area upset.

I'm thankful for the time I've been given, in any position, and try to use it to God's glory. This sudden addition is one I think I will quickly learn to enjoy, but be careful not to over work those that help me change positions either.

Reading Front to Back

On Friday, November 13, an annual event occurred. In my nightly Bible reading, I finished Revelation and moved my marker back to Genesis 1. In early high school, I started reading one chapter a night, most nights. That schedule continued through college until I increased to three chapters at the end of every day. At that rate, I go through the Bible about once a year.

Now, the only days I miss reading are when I'm in the hospital or my volunteer week at camp. Those times are only because I'm either too sick to comprehend or don't have everything I need to be able to read (table, book board, Bible, and stick).

Around 2010, I also started doing a daily reading plan through Bible Gateway. With that, I also read through the Bible front to back in a year. Therefore, I start and end the day with God's Word and read the entire Bible twice a year. In 2020, I added another study time of reading the same 1-2 chapters in the New Testament every day for a month. I started with Jude, then 2 John, and a few chapters in Romans. For the last six months, I have been reading two chapters a month in Revelation. Parts of it sound very close to what we're experiencing in the world today.

My night reading is in The Evidence Bible by Living Waters. In order to not always read the same passage morning and night, I adjust my night reading every time I go through. This year, I read every piece of the commentary that went along with the text. It meant some nights I only accomplished one chapter, and others not even that much. I don't remember when I started in Genesis in my night reading in 2019, but I'm positive it took over a year this time.

This week, I watched a documentary called The Insanity of God that covered persecuted Christians in various countries. One gentleman lived in the former USSR and was arrested for reading the Bible in his home to 75 friends and family. He was in prison for 17 years. Any time he found a scrap piece of paper and piece of coal or charcoal, he would write whatever passages he could fit and remember. Then, the writing would get stuck to the damp cell walls.

However, it wouldn't be long before prison guards found the writing. They would destroy the paper and mercilessly beat this Christian for his actions, for 17 years. Other countries had similar accounts of imprisonment while some would just kill anyone found to have a Bible or professing to be a Christian.

I can't recall now how many times I've read through God's Word in its entirety. Each time, I still look forward to the accounts of creation, the flood, Abraham, Israel, Joseph, the nation of Israel, and most of all, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In America, many Christians have multiple Bibles and can easily access them, but how often do we read them? Do we truly understand we have all sinned (lied, stolen, lusted, committed adultery, blasphemed, etc.) and deserve God's eternal punishment in hell? However, Jesus paid the fine and all who repent and trust in Him alone can be set free from the sentence we deserve.

Living the quad life and laying flat 20 hours a day, I have time to read. However, it needs to be a habit everyone does daily. It may be something we can't always do, and may regret not taking the time to be in God's Word.