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I couldn’t be more excited to watch another season of college football and my LSU Tigers and mixed with  some home town NFL Jacksonville Jaguars and my Louisiana hometown New Orleans Saints.

If you think of all of our lives as a football game, we’ve had some big wins and we’ve had some big losses.

Big Loss When you have a seizure, you must pass a driving test to drive again. This test is both written (on computer) and in the car driving with an instructor. I failed my return to driving test last month. It was devastating to me to not be able to return to that freedom and privilege again after being driven everywhere for a year.

I found out that I have what is known as a left field cut, which means I don’t have peripheral vision on my left side. Having peripheral vision is very important when driving. My instructor informed me that I had a left field vision cut which was new bad news to me.  It was in my medical records, but I had never been informed.

TIE I have recently been to an ophthalmologist to get to the bottom of my vision issues. The good news is with Occupational therapy, the brain can be retrained. So, I have some hope in the distant future of possibly getting some peripheral vision back (with the hopes of being able to safely drive again without endangering myself or others). Doctors and driving instructors will have to sign off before I ever get behind the wheel again. I am totally dependent on others to give me rides to my many doctor’s appointments, blood tests, and therapies.

 Big Win God has been so good to me. He has provided an angel named Carolyn. She is retired and is a neighbor of ours. She has offered to give me rides everywhere that my family can’t. My wife and kids sacrifice so much to get me where I need to go. In many cases, they put their lives on hold to help me.

 Win – Being so dependent on others has taught me more of what it means to be dependent upon God. We can do nothing apart from him. We are the branches and He is the vine (John 15:4) For a branch can’t produce fruit when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from me.

 Halftime – The parent ministry, Awakening, of the School of Theology which I am the Dean, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Pray that God continues to give me creative ideas to expand the School of Theology and its base of students. The school will be offering one of my classes this fall. It is the video teachings I recorded of my Doctoral Thesis.

 Sacked- Two weeks ago, our family’s finances were fraudulently abused. Someone stole our bills/checks from our mailbox and replaced their personal name (fake name) into the “pay to” line and got our mortgage $ for themselves. We have had to make so many changes to try and keep them from doing the same with the other 6 checks that were taken too. Pray that the banks involved will restore our money soon. They said the fraud investigation could take up to 90+ days to resolve. We are grateful for how God provides our needs, but this was very discouraging and time consuming.

Our family is fully leaning into Philippians 4:6-7.  When I get worried about the future and finances, I try to go to Philippians 4:6-7:Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus. (Living Bible) 6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (The Message)

 

 I have found that I am an anxious person but when I get anxious , I pray and rehearse Psalm 23, Philippians 4:6-7 Matthew 6:9-13 (The Lord’s Prayer)

 

SUPERBOWL WIN:   My latest MRI this month revealed a significant decrease in swelling in the right temporal lobe, a.k.a  the original site of the tumor. This means there is less pressure on other areas of my brain, which is GREAT NEWS. It’s almost normal! Well, for me anyways. You may be wondering, ‘Well John, is there any tumor there or are you cured?’. The answer to that is “Not yet”. At least for the time being, there is no visible tumor. It appears my immunotherapy drug, Avastin, has been very successful in fending off the bad cells from coming back. According to my wonderful neurooncologist, I’m in a great place in comparison to a large majority of patients with this terminal disease.

 

-Pray that no new tumors return

-Pray for restored peripheral vision on my left side.

-Pray for the Awakening parent company to get out of bankruptcy

-Thank God for Avastin and the great MRI results.

-Thank God for our angel and neighbor Carolyn and her servant heart

-If you worry, join me in praying Philippians 4:6-7. 

 

BIG STADIUM CHEERS -THANK YOU GOD FOR THE GREAT THINGS YOU HAVE DONE!