Lottery Tickets and/= Scientology

At last, I was rescued from my two-day stationary stint since surgery. A friend of mine randomly stopped by my house earlier right as I was about to head to an appointment with my optometrist. As I was stuffing my crutches into the backseat of my sister's car, Amanda pulled into my driveway with her mom and hobbled out of her car to hand me some Reese's and lottery tickets (I won $15 :D) she had just picked up from a gas station down the road. These are "get well" gifts if ever I've received any. Oh and yes, I did say she hobbled. She broke her foot two weeks ago trying to do some complex ballet move... after never having done any other ballet moves in her life before. Yeah, she just does stuff like that.... anyway, she took me to her house after my appointment since I'm past the 48 hours of elevation and ice. After sitting through a delicious dinner seasoned with awkward dinner conversation innuendos, we decided to watch a documentary on Scientology she had just picked up from the library. Which left me more confused about Scientology than I was before watching the DVD. The whole time some narrator guy would kinda sorta explain something... kindasorta, and then he'd go straight into some "Read L. Ron Hubbard's book Scientology: A New Slant on Life" plug. I thought this documentary was supposed to be made for people like me who do not want to read such books (or really, books in general), so I'm not sure I'll ever really know what Scientology is. I guess I can watch that Oprah episode where Tom Cruise jumps all over a couch and electrocutes her to further my education. Eh, whatever. In other news, I'm tired. This is me stopping to go to bed.

joyknees

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. This would be a bit more upsetting if I didn't know that I'm about to be knocked out by anesthetics in about five hours anyway. My last "surgery" was getting my wisdom teeth removed when I was 14-years-old. Consequences of "surgery"? I got sick -- threw up constantly, dry sockets, *and* an infection for kicks and giggles. My mouth tasted like sewage for about two weeks. So I feel like things can only go up from there? No really, I'm not worried about the knee surgery. When I finally got my knee checked out here at home and was told I have a torn medial meniscus and a torn ACL I was given my surgical options, as well as non-surgical options like, well, keep strengthening it to make it *better* but it will never reach full stability again. Um, no thanks? I'll take the surgery plz. Kthx. I'm getting an arthroscopy, which is the less invasive option, but my orthopedic surgeon did tell me that the extent of the tear on my ACL may call for a replacement. The arthroscopy will at least allow him to determine whether this is necessary. Obviously, I hope this is not the case, but given the crazy that has been my body over the past year, it wouldn't come as a shock. I don't mean to sound cynical about the whole thing. I realize I have a lot to be thankful for not only physically but mentally, spiritually, and other -allys. Plus, I have lived with a severely disabled younger sister for almost 19 years. Can't I be grateful that I don't have to live with my parents forever like she does, that I don't have to put my other sisters into the position of taking care of me if those parents die before me, that I can communicate my thoughts, that I can simply follow the "normal" pattern of life? Yes, I can be, and that gratefulness within me is renewed each time I look at my baby sister and she flashes me that ever-present grin. Despite her limitations, this girl has joy like I've not seen in most people. So what of physical health? What of mental health? We can patch up all the bodies we want. Heck, we can "improve" as many bodies as we want through plastic surgery, but the real and lasting, comforting joy we yearn for can only be found in God. And we don't find comfort for comfort's sake. Comfort enters in as an inevitable consequence of pursuing the one true God. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." -Hebrews 12:1-3

I don't know anything either.

As I've mentioned before, I worked at a Christian adventure camp in the summer of 2008. I met a lot of fantastic people, including my friend Tim Milligan, and he once introduced me to his blog. One post I read of his has really stuck with me, and it has resurfaced in my mind in light of recent events in my life. If you're interested (which you should be) in what I'm referring to, please read his post. So yeah, I'm inclined to follow the conclusion that I don't know anything. And that is probably one of the most important things to know... as long as you do know that there is One who knows everything.