Stones on the path

There is a very old saying, “You know you are doing the right thing when the Devil tries his best to stop you from doing it.” It is an old Irish Adage that basically teaches why it is so hard to do the right thing. When I was growing up, my Daddy always said, “Bobby, if doing the right thing was easy everyone would do it.” Both sayings teach us that following the right path and doing what is right is very seldom easy and is very often a hard thing to do and today was an excellent example of these concepts.

I have suffered from crippling migraines since I was in my late teens. More often than not, when one hits, I find a nice dark room somewhere and hide until it passes. I don't try to do other things or interact with people. Once upon a time, I had medications to help get me through such episodes, but such medications are expensive and I really haven't had that sort of money, even with insurance, in many many years. For most of the time, I take tons of OTC pain killers and try to survive the pain.

As I have mentioned before in this column, I truly enjoy and treasure Sunday Service especially Geezer (High Priest) Class. All of it is one of the major high parts of my week. So today, even though I was suffering a lot, I got up got dressed and went with my wife to Sunday Service. The moment I stepped into the Chapel, I knew this was a “mistake.” Between the very bright lights and the noises, I felt like someone was drilling into my skull with a rusty drill. Half way through the service, I had to rapidly leave the room and get to the bathroom to be sick to my stomach.

Still despite all of the pain and discomfort, I forced myself to stay for at least the first part of Sunday Service even though every physical thing inside of me was demanding that I give up and go home. I was not able to stay for Sunday School or Geezer Class, but I did manage the one small victory of staying for the first part.

It would have been very easy for me to simply say, “Nope, I am just not going today. I'll go next week.” Certainly a lot of people would have taken the easier route and stayed home hiding under the covers. In times, past I would have done this without even thinking about it. However, as I said, I really enjoy Sunday Services and feel that the spirit and fellowship there lifts some of the feelings of stress and worry off my shoulders.

As the date of our Baptisms grows closer, I suspect things will get even worse. With only 6 days left before our “Ritual Drownings” (My wife's term for it all which has really caught on with the Elders.), I feel like more and more force will be aligned against us. Whether you think that it is Satan working to keep us from God or simply our own deep seated worries and fears acting out, I think this next week is going to be very “interesting.”

That being said, I also feel that if any force can stop this from happening at THIS point in our journey, they are going to have to do a lot better than a migraine and upset stomach. We have been through far too much in such a short period of time to stop now. We have taken a massive leap of faith coming to VA and we have taken many smaller leaps finding the Church and our new family. At this point, all of the hard decisions have been made so it would literally take some earth shattering event to even make us think about reconsidering.

To use a quote from one of my own books, “The path with the most stones only means that only a few have traveled that way.” Doing the right thing is hard so it will always be filled with stones to slow us along our journey. The trick is never how quickly you finish the trek, but that you actually finish it.

Amen