Brain Swelling

I have taken a bit of a break from writing my blog during a time of intense brain swelling. For the past three or more months I have been studying hard for my ordination interview which took place two weeks ago. Since then I have been allowing myself time to decompress and allow the swelling in my brain to go down. Writing anything more than my child-like signature became a task and I seemed to be exhausted over the tiniest of thought interruptions. I know for many, you know exactly what I am talking about.

This past Friday Becky and I took possession of our new home. We were very excited to get in and begin the work needed to make the home into our own and something we could enjoy living in. As a result, we very much needed to gut and replace both the bathroom and the kitchen. On Saturday morning when I arrived at the house, Dieter, our Summit Church Picasso when it comes to home renovations, was already hard at work taking my bathroom apart. My job in assisting him was to remove the garbage that he was taking down and put into the bin. He warned me not to take too much at one time so that I would not hurt or strain myself since this is not what I do for a living and my body is not used to this kind of labour. He was right. The next day I attempted to put on my wedding ring and it did not fit. My fingers had swelled and it was not until mid day that I was finally able to get it back on.

Preachers, like myself, tell their listeners that they are to read their bible and pray everyday and that the study they choose to do should be somewhat substantial. What we inadvertently do is swelling peoples brains; so much so that at times they are unable to carry on the next day. So here is my encouragement to you; if you are new to the discipline of reading your bible or any spiritual discipline for that fact, pace yourself! Take time to get used to the discipline of study to better ensure that you don't suffer from brain swelling, which is sure to lead to discouragement and failure. Don't allow the discipline of studying your bible take away from the joy of spending time in the word, and before you know you will have adjusted to this new lifestyle and will be ready to move on to new challenges, that once again may cause the unexpected swelling of the brain.