Trina is one of my heroes! We have been on many mission trips together in Honduras and I've grown to love and admire her. She's such a wonderful example, WCS has tried several times to persuade her to teach for us. Trina and her husband Bob live in St. Louis and are expecting their first child! Pray for me as I continue my mission in Vietnam!
Saturday morning, I got up like I usually do - got ready for the gym, and checked myself in the mirror. As I peered at myself, I was taken aback - the entire side of my right eye was solid red. Not bloodshot - straight up red. I looked at it for several minutes - I had no idea how it could have happened. I didn't know if it was dangerous - because it didn't hurt. I could still see, so it wasn't impeding my vision. For all these reasons, I decided to let it go and move on with my day.
Sunday morning, it looked worse - the whole half of my eye was still red, so I decided to do something about it. I made an appointment at the urgent care to get things checked out. They asked me a ton of questions - checked my vision - and took all of my vitals. The nurse practitioner came in - asked me several questions again - and finally diagnosed me with subconjunctival hemorrhage. That's a fancy word for a blood vessel bursting in my eye. She assured me that there was nothing I could do about it - it would heal on its own - but it would look like this for a while. Thank goodness it was not too serious!
Monday was pretty interesting - you know middle schoolers and their reactions to things. I decided to break the ice in all my classes - and tell them about my eye. I assured them it was not contagious - and it was not pink eye. I let them know it would look this way for a while - and that I was OK. They seemed to feel better once I shared this - I told them I was just getting Halloween started early! I was in the early stages of turning into a vampire - no worries!
This goes to show you - you don't know unless you ask, or someone tells you. Some of my kiddos asked me straight up about my eye - others just stared at me, hoping I would say something. Breaking the ice put everyone at ease - and helped everyone understand the situation. It's the same for anything new - the learning process requires us to ask questions, do our research, and make sense of things for ourselves. I have done this for several things in my life – including in my own walk with the Lord. He tells us to “test the spirits” and make sure what we are hearing is the truth. His truth. This happened more often when I moved out of state for college – being on my own challenged me to make my faith my own, figure things out for myself, and build a personal relationship with the Lord. Every Christian goes through this at times – we have growth spurts as well as times when we are stagnant. It is in these periods of time that we figure out who we are, seeing ourselves as a true child of God.
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
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