HEALTH SAGA REPORT

May 19, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: health, resilience Leave a comment

The Latest Update on Nancy and Me

As I write the news concerning my jaw journey and Nan’s cancer fight, I am reminded of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:16:

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Stamina. Business man pointing to transparent board with text: Resilience

By God’s grace we remain steadfast (James 5:11). The Lord kindly renews us daily with His lavish mercies and great faithfulness (Lam. 3:22-23).

Through the ups and downs of doctors’ visits, lab reports, treatments et al, we continue to hang in and trust God’s unwavering goodness. Here’s what we know at this point:

First, regarding Nancy. We finally received the lab results on the fluid extracted from her some weeks ago. They tested eleven different chemo drugs for potential effectiveness on her form of disease.

Not a single one registered positive. Her doctor admitted any attempt at standard of care therapy would constitute a “crap shoot.” Not exactly overly motivating, as one might imagine.

Nan continues to fight fluid build up. It gets drained as needed. She battles away on the alternative therapy front. A new practitioner has entered the picture. She remains optimistic, reporting some symptom progress as a result of new strategies.

Now, regarding me. For the most part, I enjoy good progress since “Operation Robojaw” over fourteen weeks ago. The Lord graciously allowed me to return to the pulpit on May 15. It went better than I anticipated. I must speak more slowly than before–probably not a bad thing–but the articulation issues don’t seem overly distracting.

I’ve started therapy to improve my speech. Unfortunately the exercises helping me so much seem to have kicked up painful muscle spasms in my upper right jaw. Next Tuesday I travel to Miami for my surgeon to address that complication.

Dr. Marx will also review with me the results of my recent swallow study. Surgery changed something in the swallowing mechanism when I eat and drink. I tend to aspirate both liquids and solids.

Apparently my body can’t generate adequate pressure to get the stuff down the esophagus. Hence, something ends up going in the wrong pipe. Choking can result; I need to exercise extreme care with the process.

My primary care doctor has ordered occupational therapy for my swallow issues. Hopefully that will help. One step away from a Heimlich Maneuver unnerves me a bit.

So there you have it. The Heff House saga continues. We remain immensely grateful for the outpouring of support and the prayers of countless numbers of fellow believers.

I will post additional updates whenever we have significantly more to report.

Another Personal Update

April 19, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: cancer, health, swallow study 3 Comments

More Health News from the House of Heff

Many of our OGC folks and others probably wonder how our busy medical Monday went this week. Here’s the latest:

First, on my front, Monday proved a total washout. Somehow the wrong test got ordered. Back to the drawing board with my PCP. In other words, still waiting on that swallow study I need.

Now, on Nancy’s front, some significant progress. She underwent an outpatient procedure to remove two liters plus of fluid from her body–ostensibly not that uncommon with ovarian cancer.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT WE FINALLY GOT THE BIOPSY RESULTS! Relatively good news. The enlarged node the surgeon took over six weeks ago tested out as the same ovarian cancer as elsewhere in her body, not some other form of the stupid disease.

Unfortunately the node didn’t meet the size specs necessary upon which to grow a culture. So we still don’t know what chemo drug would best target her cancer, should she choose that route of last resort.

Other than a bit tired and sore from lying in the same position for the procedure, she feels much relief after the siphoning off of all that fluid. A sample of the same now gets sent to the company for testing to determine the best drug for her use. We should hear in two or so weeks.

Yeah, sure.

Forgive my cynicism and thanks for those continued prayers!

A PERSONAL UPDATE

March 31, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: cancer, health, jaw 11 Comments

A dear self-professed atheist friend of mine follows my blog. This both humbles and encourages me. But he did recently complain about the content. “Too much religion. Not enough about you.” Just like my buddy. This post he will like, I think.

Sick Leave

I had to shut down the blog for a couple of weeks recently due to ongoing treatment during my current medical absence. Following jaw surgery six weeks ago my surgeon ordered ten hyperbaric dives to aid in my recovery. They completely wiped me out. Productivity of any kind flew out the window from day one. Fortunately I’ve left those in the rear view mirror. I am actually starting to feel human again.

010

Before I write anything more about me, let me update on the Queen of the Manor, Miss Nancy. Honestly, we don’t have a great deal to report about her cancer battle. She continues diligent treatment with her latest alternative protocol.

She remains optimistic in every way. She has no pain or symptoms. Still no word on the results of her lymph node pathology. We may wait as many as two more weeks for those. Sigh.

Needless to say we pray a lot through this journey. Thanks to so many of you who join us in petitioning the Father in Jesus’ name for her complete healing.

robojaw

Now back to the less interesting part of this post. How do you like my new look? Yep, allow me to introduce you up close and personal to “robojaw.” This most recent scan shows my titanium implant.

Note the span. It runs from the socket by my ear all the way past the midline point of my chin. Just above the “chain” shows my remaining live bone in the mandible. Noticeable by their absence? All my teeth in that quadrant. Needless to say the left side does all the chewing work these days. I’m wondering if my dental hygienist will discount me 25% now at teeth cleaning time.

I still have some swelling. My surgeon, whom I saw recently in Miami, refers to these weeks as “the accommodation” phase of my healing. But everything looks good. I can eat anything I find tolerable. Some speech and swallowing therapy lies ahead as soon as we can arrange it, but things overall improve daily.

office

Thankfully, this week I’ve returned to the office for a good part of each day. Prime time pulpit work will have to wait a bit longer, but writing and administration–no problem. Seems I can manage the occasional appointment as well. Sure beats breathing 100% O2 at a simulated 45 feet below sea level in a claustrophobic chamber.

Our elders huddle up in a couple of weeks. At that meeting I expect we will discuss my progress and what steps might lie ahead for a more complete pastoral reentry. In the meantime, I praise God for His kindness in sustaining me through this marathon journey. Go ahead and say it “L.” “There you go again with that religious talk.”

I just can’t help myself.

IN PRAISE OF BELOVED PHYSICIANS

March 5, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: care, loyalty, team 2 Comments

On discharge day after a week in the hospital for “Operation Robojaw,” one of my doctors made a point to visit me that Sunday morning. The moment I met the man two months earlier my heart attached fast to him. Turns out he studies theology on the side in his spare time–at Southern Seminary online no less! A doctor and a brother. Sweet.

Docgreen

We prayed together that morning–me for him and him for me. As soon as we finished, I immediately felt prompted to say this: I imagine you’re a lot like Dr. Luke must have been. Marshall deflected the praise, as I suspected he would. However, since then I’ve given a fair amount of thought to what makes for a beloved physician.

Mostly, Bible lovers think of Luke as a meticulous historian and second most prolific New Testament author–he wrote the gospel which bears his name and Acts–after the apostle Paul. Without Col. 4:14 we’d never suspect his medical credential–Luke the beloved physician greets you. That’s it. Not a whole lot to go on.

Still we can take away more than immediately meets the eye, if only we will ponder this verse and a few others which also reference Luke. As for Col. 4:14 it helps to know a little of the original language and its syntax. Literally the verse reads: Greets you Luke the physician the beloved. Awkward. I get it. But informative. Paul puts the beloved last in the sentence for emphasis. Greek often does that. Word order matters. The word means dearly loved, prized, valued.

Paul considered Luke a prince. He treasured the man. Luke ranked high in his beloved category. Here’s my take on why:

One, Luke cared deeply and personally for others. All that oozes out of the word greet at the beginning of Col. 4:14. It conveyed a great deal more sentiment than saying “hey” or “hello.” When someone used this greeting-from-a-distance formula common in the New Testament, he intended to say, If I were there I would greet you with one huge holy kiss (Rom. 16:16). I’ll wager Luke aced bedside manner class.

Two, Luke acted courageously and remained loyal to others. On death row in a Roman prison, Paul makes this astonishing statement in 2 Tim. 4:11–Luke alone is with me. Deserted by all others, Paul found comfort in his you-can’t-shake me-I’m-not-going-anywhere doctor, no matter what the costs.

Three, Luke concerned himself diligently and humbly not just for the bodies but also for the souls of others. Consider how he introduced his gospel in Luke 1:1-4:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, ²just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, ³it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, ⁴that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

Don’t you think Theophilus thanked his lucky stars for Luke’s historical writing of the good news of Jesus? Luke saw himself just as much an evangelist as a doctor (see also Acts 16:10). Luke is part of the “we” and “us” of that text.

docteam

Four, Luke valued and got along famously with a team of others in his ministry. Philemon 24 makes this clear: and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. Above I’ve included an image of two more rock-star docs who cared for me in Miami. I forced them to strike this victory pose on discharge day. Unfortunately I wasn’t with it enough to get pics of still others who performed in such a stellar way for me.

Gentlemen, this patient salutes you. You are beloved in my book. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. They will have to answer to this pastor with a brand new titanium jaw.

Question: What qualities have you enjoyed in a doctor or doctors which have made them beloved to you? You can leave your comment here.

A VIEW FROM THE HOSPITAL (2)

February 20, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: help, insights, truama 16 Comments

Five Life-Changing Lessons from Major Surgery

My docs teased me last night with the possibility of discharging me today. No such luck. Just as well. I don’t want out of Camp Jackson South until we can stay on top of pain at home. So, another day in the hospital. And, as promised, part two of yesterday’s post.

The Lord has graciously given me five lessons so far from “Operation Robojaw.” With them come wisdom responses so as to make the most of the opportunity and not waste the sorrow. Two down; three to go.

Lesson Three: How Proud & Self-Reliant I Still Am

Hospitals humble a person. Big time. You have so little control. And you can need so much help. You lose all dignity–though I’ve fought hard to minimize my number of “Dancing Henrys.” Think Jack Nicholson in Something’s Gotta Give.

But some personal matters just go flat-out public in ICU. Thank God my nurse was male! More than that, I rediscovered once again my self-reliance idol. Pure pride drives me to think I can do whatever all by my lonesome. Trauma surgeries get you in touch with that arrogance fast.

Response? Remember the example of the Lord Jesus. Facing His darkest trauma outside Gethsemane He took three of His band of brothers to watch and pray with Him (Matt. 26:36-46). He needed their community in the furnace of the cup.

I know only one way to escape the gravitational pull of pride or any other sin issue. I must drench myself continually in the gospel river of the One who humbled Himself (Phil. 2:8).

Lesson Four: How Meaningful & Refreshing a Visit Can Be

Please understand. I’m in Miami–Kendall–to be exact. I can see Cuba from here. That’s over 250 miles from my home in Orlando. And yet every day but one on this delightful little healing assignment visitors from my church have fought the traffic and spent precious time, not to say gas money, to come see me–even in ICU where I could barely talk.

Just today two other brothers camped out for a few hours–even did my laps with me around the floor. I get what Paul felt when he wrote: But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus (2 Cor. 7:6).

Response?
Never underestimate the significance of hanging out with someone in distress. You too can be an Onesiphorus (2 Tim. 1:16).

Lesson Five: How Powerful & Necessary the Prayers of Others Are

Now I know that. Pastors preach that. But this week again I came to treasure it all over again. Paul boasted this confidence from prison in Phil. 1:19–for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.

Not for a moment would I try to minimize the degree of difficulty associated with this week. But the prayers of God’s people from all over the country and even other nations–thank you Hungary!–have played a huge role in my light speed recovery.

Response? Build a community of relationships, especially in your church. Pray for one another, particularly in trauma. God hears and answers. To Him be all the glory.

Question: What help has served you well in surviving some trauma. You can leave your comment here.

A VIEW FROM THE HOSPITAL

February 19, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: insights, trauma, wisdom 11 Comments

Five Life-Changing Lessons from Major Surgery

Perhaps “major” doesn’t quite capture it. What a war on Monday! Eight hours on the table. Resection of my right mandible plus extraction of three teeth. Insertion of a titanium plate affixed with screws. Twelve inch arterial-vein transplant from my left thigh to my neck creating a “free flap” blood supply both inside my mouth and out. This ordeal made my cancer surgery feel like a day at the ballpark in comparison.

icu You know you’re feeling better when your thoughts turn to blogging. Much improvement has occurred. The docs say things look fantastic. If I remain on track, they may ship me home on Sunday. Sweet. How come Stryker doesn’t manufacture hospital beds for guys over 6 foot?

Traumatic experiences like prolonged hospitalizations make marvelous tutors. Not that I would volunteer of my own will, anymore than I did for my cancer disaster. But God uses these things in strikingly effective ways to instruct us along the way of shaping us more and more into the character of His beloved Son, our older Brother, Jesus (James 1:2-4).

Today the Lord crystallized five lessons so far from this jawful ordeal for me. With them come wisdom responses so as to make the most of the opportunity and not waste the sorrow.

Lesson One: How Fearfully & Wonderfully Made We Are

While one of the residents cleaned the question mark-like looking incision on my thigh this morning, I asked him this: Doc, I’m a theist. I believe God put parts in every place for specific reasons. What happens down there with those twelve inches now doing duty neck-side? He answered this way: Redundant systems. The body has ways of compensating. Peripherals (I think that’s what he called them}. take over for them. No wonder David spoke of the human body the way he did (Psalm 139:14).

Response? Worship and wonder at the goodness of God in your creation. Give thanks for your working parts and God’s healing power built into the body.

Lesson Two: How Frail & Mist-Like Our Lives Are

I gave serious thought to the prospect of not waking up from that surgery–at least not here. Nancy received a letter from me to guard her shalom should I have gone home. Obviously His purposes proved otherwise for now. But walking these halls–they had me up the next day–seeing some of the other patients on life support, well, it sobers you to say the least. James said it well: What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes (4:19).

Response? Take no day for granted. Give thanks for the new breaths you draw first thing every morning. And, like James, acknowledge that your plans will only materialize according to His gracious will, so be sure to say your share of “If the Lord wills” (James 4:15).

I’ve hit the wall. This patient needs some rest. Lessons three through five will have to wait for tomorrow, Lord willing. No big deal. Plenty of time to kill at this place on a Saturday.

Question: When have you gotten some significant insight from a traumatic experience? You can leave a comment here.

THE LATEST ON NANCY’S FIGHT WITH CANCER

January 29, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: adoration, cancer, health, Job, PET scan, suffering, update 9 Comments

Nancy A natural-friendly MD Nan now sees in Lakeland advised from the get-go that she have a full-body PET scan. I remember them well from my own cancer journey back in ’05. This will give us a baseline from which we can determine how things progress over the course of treatment.

She had the scan this past Tuesday. Her OB/GYN called us in to review the findings just this very morning. I wish I could post a more encouraging report. The results showed that my beloved lost ground over the last few months. The disease definitely has spread. Nan asked me to divulge no greater specifics than these given the sensitive nature of anyone’s health history.

What does this mean now that we’ve got a clearer picture of her condition? Beyond one move for certain, we don’t know just yet what the Lord would have her do. I respect my wife for the patient processor that she is. She will definitely talk with the Lakeland doctor today for his input. The additional move for certain involves her getting a medical oncologist on the team. Her OB/GYN enthusiastically consented to my suggestion that she refer Nan to the medical oncologist who cared for me way back when. The personal relationship we have with Dr. G will serve things well in terms of helping Nan weigh her options. Once a direction comes into focus I will post further updates as necessary.

How are we doing? Good question. I think Nancy is sorting that out for herself; I feel a bit numb at this point. Of course we continue to covet the prayers of God’s people for His purposes to carry the day at every turn on this roller coaster ride. The emotions ride higher than usual in January as it brings each year another anniversary of our son’s death back in 2014. These latest developments challenge the emotions all the more. Through it all I keep asking the Lord to anchor us in a Job-like grip on reality. Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked shall I return (Job 1:21a). Mike Mason captured it well:

Job knew one of the great secrets of faith: the believer in God has no worldly rights. The true believer is someone who has abdicated all rights, freely accepting the status of a slave and no longer laying claim to any earthly chattel, whether it be “houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields” (Matt. 19:29). These are precisely the sort of things that Job has just lost, and yet his initial response to their loss is not bitter complaint, nor even mere acquiescence, but adoration (The Gospel According to Job, Crossway, 37).

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Dear Josh

January 18, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection, Uncategorized Tags: contentment, death, grief, idols, Joy, loss 7 Comments

Josh and Me (2)

Hey, bud.

Two years ago today. Goes by fast. Your damaged heart gave out. Cut down in your prime. I’ll never forget the moment I walked through the door that Saturday afternoon. Your mom trembled the horrific news of our loss. I suspect that scene will never dim in my mind’s eye.

Grief gets easier and it doesn’t. Losing you still ranks first among the hardest things I’ve ever endured. Difficult to imagine anything worse. I’ve said it so many times. No one should have to bury their child.

Honestly, son, things haven’t gotten a whole lot easier since that traumatic day. Oh don’t get me wrong. The Lord has blessed us beyond what we deserve in 2014 and 15. Two of His best gifts are named Blaise and Olivia! How about these cuties?!

But December of 2014 hit hard. Mom got diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer. Since surgery that month she’s worked hard via natural methods to beat the remaining rogue cells in her body. Just today she went to a new doc in Lakeland for the fourth or fifth time. He wants her to have a PET scan ASAP to determine just where we stand. We hope to nail down an appointment for that sometime later this week. Lots of prayers by tons of people going heavenward for Ma. So grateful for all the support.

I’m not without my own issues. Long story, but the gist of things is this. I’ve got a busted jaw. I know the irony of that doesn’t escape you. Preacher’s got a bum mandible! It’s a result of the radiation treatment for my head and neck cancer in 2005. Surgeons plan to replace the dead bone with a titanium plate on February 15. I wrote all about that here. I’m thinking of changing my new Twitter address to @robojaw. What do you think?

For the time being I’m on total medical leave from my duties at the church AGAIN. I’ve seen this movie before back in 2005. I work at my writing mostly, when pain and fatigue allow. But preaching, talking, counseling to any degree? Completely out of the question.

As you can imagine one does a lot of thinking/reflecting when largely confined to the house awaiting a jaw replacement. I keep coming back to the things I miss so much.

Like kissing your mom. Don’t give me that look. You know how crazy I am about her. Do you have any idea how much the jaw comes into play for even the slightest peck on the lips? It’s so frustrating. I do not like in the least this hindrance to our closeness.

Then how about eating? Let me tell you about feasting or the lack thereof. I cannot chew a blessed thing. Nary a bite. I dream about chomping on a blue corn chip, dining on a medium rare ribeye, or even gumming a Five Guys french fry. Can’t do it. The menu these days consists strictly of slush and mush. Nice weight loss plan but I don’t recommend it to anyone.

By the way, I wanted to keep up the tradition I started last year by dining at Emeril’s today. Dear Michelle even posted on my Facebook wall a gracious invitation to lunch. It hurt to decline, though I did ask for a rain check. I went to see finally the new Star Wars movie instead. I’m glad I waited until this anniversary day to check it out . You loved the saga so much. I think mostly you would have enjoyed episode 7. It was a comfort to me, but not at all like having Fabian serve me one of those mouthwatering duck tacos and reminiscing with him and the other terrific staff at the restaurant.

I could go on, but I’ll finish with the issue of my preaching. I had to stop cold in the middle of my series on Gen. 14. It just hurt too much to speak for any length of time. I’m on the bench, riding the pines, while others occupy MY pulpit Sunday in and Sunday out. Not fair!

Josh, I thought, I hoped, I dared believe maybe I learned in ’05 some of these lessons related to good things that I so readily turn into god things so that they become bad things. Perhaps not as much as Jesus thinks necessary for me. I just have to keep learning and relearning the main thing . . .

Jesus is enough.

My joy, contentment, satisfaction can’t depend on the presence or absence of God’s good gifts. I need to grow more in saying with Paul in Phil. 4:11-13 that I have learned the secret of being content. I need to sing with the poet more earnestly these words in Psalm 73:25-26.

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Lips out of commission? Jesus is enough.

Feasting off the table? Jesus is enough.

Preaching out of the question? Jesus is enough.

Maybe I’ll get it through my thick head and slow heart this time, dude. One can only hope.

By the way, this father misses you terribly, but, and I think you won’t take this the wrong way . . .

Jesus is still enough.

He is gloriously, powerfully, graciously, abundantly, and savingly enough.

VALENTINE’S DAY IN MIAMI

January 7, 2016 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: health, jaw, surgery 10 Comments

Can’t say I don’t know how to show my bride a good time. Yes sir, I’m pulling out all the stops this year. I’m taking Nancy to the Magic City on February 14. Unfortunately we won’t be having a romantic dinner for two on South Beach, unless you count Smoothie King a five star establishment. No, we will head that way on the 14th so I can report for jaw replacement surgery first thing in the morning on the 15th.

MarxScanAgain2

After visiting on Monday of this week with Team Marx associated with Jackson South Community Hospital, we had no doubt the Lord had led us to just the right resource to deal with my fractured mandible. The image above shows the results of a CT scan they did in the office that day. If you look closely at the largest of the pictures head on at the top, you can see to the left (my right side) the break in the bone. Apparently there are some splinters of the jaw floating around in there adding to my misery. To use one of the doctors words after they examined the area treated with radiation in 2005–“You got fried.” And so I did and these are some of the unfortunate consequences.

titanium jaw implant.jpg

The procedure takes anywhere from seven to nine hours. It begins with removing all the dead bone on that side of jaw. I will lose the next two teeth in line as well since they are sitting on top of dead bone. Fortunately the titanium plate (pictured above) then implanted will not, in my case, pass the mid-line, as in this stock picture I grabbed from the web. While the oral surgeon does his thing up above, a micro-vascular surgeon will work below on my right thigh to start something called a “free flap” transplant. When the jaw is finished, then the second surgeon will attach the vein he pulls from my leg to a good blood supply on the left side of my neck and run it across to the right side. This will insure adequate blood supply for the needed tissue growth and healing of the jaw.

jacksonville2

After the surgery I will spend two nights in ICU to monitor the free flap part of the process carefully. Assuming all goes well with that, then it’s off to the main floor of the hospital for another four or five days. The docs are very optimistic about how quickly I can heal and get back to work, but some of that depends on how many HBO2 dives I am likely to need after surgery to aid in the healing process. I’m still waiting for more info in that regard.

Honestly I had hoped for a sooner surgery date than February 15, but supply and demand being what it is in this highly specialized kind of procedure, I am grateful I don’t have to wait even longer.

One last tidbit. When one of the doctors who will work on the free flap procedure heard I was a pastor, he smiled and shared with me that he takes online courses at Southern Seminary in his free time! He went out of his way as a brother in Christ to give me his contact info and even friended me on Facebook. The Lord is so kind to add those touches of providence to our circumstances when we are asking for His clear leading.

While I wait for “Operation Robojaw” to take place, I hope to make as much progress as I can on my manuscript for Baker Books. Fortunately it doesn’t hurt when I write, only when I preach!

A Different Kind of Christmas Gift

December 24, 2015 By revheff in Personal Reflection Tags: Gifts, reward, Words Leave a comment

gift-ideas-newyear2015

I have blogged before in praise of nurses and their most noble of professions. You can read that post by clicking here. Something happened the other day in HBO2 dive #31 which compels me to sing their praises yet another time.

Before describing the particular “gift” prompting this Christmas Eve post, let me just say this about the crew serving the Florida Hospital South deep wound unit day after day. These are as remarkably cheerful, professional, attentive, and compassionate professionals as you will ever want to encounter. I just wish they would stop calling me “Mr. Heffelfinger” all the time! It makes me feel so old. But their code of respect toward the patient will permit no informality whatsoever, while being as warm as they can possibly be at every turn.

Just before the chamber door shut, one of those dear ladies in blue scrubs approached my wheel chair with smartphone in hand. She asked, with something of a sparkle in her eye, if she could read me something. “Sure,” I said, wondering what she had to share with this jaw-broken patient. She later sent this text to my phone.

The Servant’s Reward
One day, when you are in Heaven,
someone will come up to you and thank you
for the way you touched his or her life.
The person’s words will take you completely by surprise.
Soon, another person will seek you out,
and then another, and another.
As you listen to each one’s story,
you will begin to discover all the ways that God used your life
when you were unaware of it.
You will find that it was most often not through the big things that you did,
but through the small and simple things–
a spoken word that was not planned,
a spontaneous act of kindness,
a loving attitude or a caring smile.
To your joy, you will discover that in all these ways and more,
God used you to deposit an eternal measure of His love
into many needy hearts.
~Roy Lessin~

She finished reading and just looked at me quietly smiling as much to say, and I think I got the message correctly, “It’s not lost on us what you do day-in-and-day-out here with your encouragements to us.” To be honest, I think the determination to bless my caregivers with thanks, affirmations, compliments and the like is more about me than about them. I can’t stomach the thought of being a trial to these all-star performers when I can be by God’s grace a treasure of a low maintenance, high-patience, why-complain-when-you-can-bless patient in their care.

Besides, I know what God’s word says in the wisdom books in Prov. 15:23.

“To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!”

Her gift touched me. She went out of her way to reinforce just how important a gift a word of encouragement can be to others. Whatever 2016 brings in my trial by jaw journey, I hope never to forget this special dimension of a servant’s reward. Might you do the same with the Lord’s help?