After about three months of wrestling with a variety of minor illnesses, I ended up with a case of acute bronchitis.
Believe me, though, it really wasn’t cute at all.
With all that in the past, I now start a new chapter in my life. I’m now back in the saddle again, so to speak, and picking up where I left off a couple of months ago.
I’ve suffered many physical problems throughout the years, but I’ve noticed now that I’m older, it takes me longer to get back to normal. I could choose to moan and groan in bed, but what in the world would that accomplish?
Now that I’m back in the saddle, I need to understand the power of that saddle, which is the horse. Which is going to empower me to get back to my normal life?
Of course my wife Martha, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, always questions me about that.
“What’s normal for you?” she’d always ask me. I never had a really good answer for that.
What’s normal to one person can be a fit of craziness to someone else.
It doesn’t matter to me about my normal. If it’s crazy, I’m going to accept that and incorporate it into my life.
What’s wrong with being crazy? After all, I’ve been crazy all my life, so why should I change now?
Now that I’m back in the saddle, I can get into my office and begin working on projects I haven’t been able to undertake for the last several months. It’s a good feeling to be back in my office again.
As I look around my office, I cannot see any mess at all. My office is so organized that I know exactly where to find whatever I need at any given time. I’ve learned through life if I can’t find something, it means I really don’t need it. That’s been the saddle on my horse for many years.
Getting back on the saddle is a very challenging proposition.
First, I have to know where to start. After about three months of not doing much of what I need to do, I need to find out where to start.
To figure out where to start, I have to sit in my office with a nice, hot cup of coffee, look around, and take in all the books I have, the computers, the printer and my desk. To Martha, this looks like a mess. But, to her adoring husband, all of this inspires me to get back on the saddle and go charging forward.
It’s going to take me a week or so to readjust my priorities. What’s really the top priority as I get started?
Now that I’m back in the saddle, I can go forward and get everything in line to become productive again.
I couldn’t help but think of a Bible verse on this subject.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
— 2 Corinthians 5: 17
As a Christian, my focus is not on my past, but forward on Christ.
Dr. Snyder is a former pastor who lives with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, in Ocala, Fla. His email is [email protected].
