“Are you choosing God’s way or your way?”  by Lindsay Oldright

This is a frequent question in our family when we can feel disobedience on the horizon with our kids. But let’s be honest, it isn’t just a question for my kids, it‘s a question for my own heart. Often as I ask that question, I’m convicted about my own choices over the last few days. I often choose the easy path, the comfortable path, the path that sees my opinion as more righteous than others and proceeds to judge others as unrighteous.  

My journey into the world of chronic pain began in the summer of 2007. I remember it well. I was serving at our Kids Town Camp when I was gripped with a pain so severe, I ended up in the ER. After hours on a morphine drip and many diagnostic tests, I was sent home with the diagnosis of idiopathic hydronephrosis or swelling and spasms of the kidney without known cause.

I had this severe spastic, throbbing, nauseating pain off and on for 12 years. In the beginning, I had some months free of this pain but ended up in the ER frequently with flare-ups. Gradually my episodes begin to increase, to whereby the summer of 2017, I was gripped with almost constant spasms and level 10 pain. I was home flat in bed for days begging for pain meds and relief. I felt alone, exhausted, and desperate.

What is your testimony? Were you saved as a child? Did you walk the “straight and narrow”? Did you have a rough start? However God called you to repentance, your conversion is a miracle! Being brought from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light is such an awesome thing that even the angels in heaven rejoice. When we confess our faith in Jesus Christ, accept His death and resurrection as the payment for our sins, and turn from our ways to His, He becomes our Savior and our Lord.

God created humans in His image and gave them the ability to learn and create and with the task to rule over the world for His glory. Every generation has seen advances. My grandparents used an outhouse and wood-burning stove. We have flush toilets and electricity. My generation grew up with dial phones on the wall and typewriters. My kids have cell phones and iPads.