bierkergaard

My Dad came up after the surgery to keep me company and feed me. My nickname in my family is Bear because of my attachment to a Teddy Bear that I had as a kid. I also had a blanket like Linus. I most relate to Linus as a Peanuts character. Philosophical and a sensitive thumb-sucker even though I look intimidating. My Dad likes to call me Bear and he thankfully was feeding the Bear. He made a big pot of stew and I ate that for close to ten days. It was perfect. I didn't have to cook and I had companionship. I did tell my Dad to watch his humor because it hurt so much to laugh b/c my innards had been cut open and then re-sewn together. All he asked was free access to my pistachios and Jim Beam. Both of which he downed with pleasure. He is just a naturally funny dude; at least I think so. His humor is old man cranky type of stuff. I could probably make millions if I packaged his thoughts about life in a compendium of the "Sayings of Cranky George." From there, I coul...

Luke 16:21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. Yep, I am getting a lot of mileage off of my emergency surgery of the ruptured appendix. I promise, it should only last through 2013. Joking, just joking. I know that it is probably uncouth to take about urination in such a lofty blog as this. Why, with all this talk of theology, better suited to smoking pipes and blazer arm patches. But keeping it real. Jesus peed. I was so full of infection, chemicals, pain killers, and etc. after surgery that I was caught in one of the most terrible Catch-22's imaginable. I had to pee but it felt like I was urinating glass fragments. So it was "Go" and then "Oh, No." I trickled into the jar mere drops and then gave up after two ounces. I rolled back into bed with a slightly less full bladder only to have to go through the excrutiating process of sitting up, standing up, and then trying again in 30 minutes...

Matthew 20:22 But Jesus answered by saying to them, "You don't know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink?" "Oh yes," they replied, "we are able!" I tried to write this blog last night and quit. It just wasn't happening. It is hard to write about adversity without falling into moroseness or even worse cliche. I truly want bierkergaard to be a place of hope. Real hope. In a sometimes hard, heartless, and hopeless world. Buoyed by a two hour snow delay this morn, I shall try to ascend the adversity mountain again. With my recent ruptured appendix, the surgeon placed me on some lethal antibiotic called Metronidazole. Also known by its brand name Flagyl. Wonder if it is from the same root word for flagellate? Would seem logical. My general practitioner doctor just shook his head and said "it is nasty" when I brought up how it was seemingly poisoning me. We all know the say...

Luke 9:62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." My surgeon pulled the tubing out of my gut last Monday. The picture above is what I had in me.  Silly me, I had called him a couple of days before, sharing with him that I was concerned that the stitching had broken and was I at-risk of the tubing coming out? He assured me I was fine. Little did I know this was because this tubing was like two and a half feet long. Inside my gut! It was draining my innards into what I called a "pus grenade"...a plastic/rubber clear container that had to be emptied every couple of hours (what the dude is squeezing). The surgeon pulled the tubing once and it came half-way out. It shocked me and hurt like hell. I thought it was over. Then he pulled it again, and I screamed "H... Crap!" I screamed like a baby. At least another foot. Reminded me of the film "Alien." Not sure how this sq...

2nd Cor 5:19 That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. Really like this graphic from Google today. Since today is a day of celebrating the MLK dream of reconciliation, how do we find what we are searching for?  The older I get the more I see that if a dream is not grounded in God, it just blows away like dust. Makes sense. Thou who is eternal trumps the temporal. So many of our dreams are some mutated form of selfishness and pride. Here are some thoughts about discerning our dreams to see if they are of Deity are not: - When trouble in our dream hits, do we get overly mad, angry, and wrathful? Chance are it is your dream and not God's. Patience is God's winnower. If we can't wait, chances are we are not ready to win.   - When others laugh at or dismiss our dream, do we get hurt and retaliatory? Probably our gig. The acid of criticism strip...

Galatians 6:7 Don't be misled--you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. I have been watching a great deal of television recently due to my recuperation, some of it willingly, some of it forced upon me by my hospital roomie. I have come to a conclusion, or more appropriately, it has further confirmed by conclusions about television. Let me make an analogy. Television is like a piece of meat that has a lot of parts that have gone bad and rotten. There are pieces that are still healthy and nutritious. One has to bear the cutting knife carefully to slice the good from the bad. If one needed a general action that would be safest, it would be to put the tv on the curb to be picked up like the garbage most of it is. However, I think, it is possible to have a television and maintain a level of purity in our watching yet it requires a lot of intentionality. Just trolling through the channels typically is like dredging fro...