Not MY Stroke
I am rambling today.😍
I suppose someone could say that this is only semantics or a different way of saying the same thing, but it is important to me.
I intend to say this as perfectly clear as I can. I had a major brain stem stroke on December 29, 2023. It hit me incredibly hard, but it is Not MY Stroke.
It happened to me. I do not deny that. I am not living in a dreamland of make believe. I am still dealing with the effects of it. Hundreds of times a day I am reminded I had a stroke.
However, I refuse to take ownership of it. This brain attack with the root cause of a blood clot in my brain stem, does not belong to me.
I hope this makes sense to you. It makes sense when I say it to myself. It happened to me but it does not belong to me. It is Not MY Stroke.
I have heard people say all my life.
My car wreck.
My accident.
My seizure.
My disease.
My depression.
My cancer.
My heart attack.
My surgery.
My stroke.
I have obviously never corrected anyone who said that and I have no intention of scolding anyone now. But I have always flinched a little bit inside when I have heard it.
I understand what they are saying and like I said at the beginning, it is probably all a matter of using different words, but these things do not belong to me. Even though this crisis is a part of my life for this short space, I am not going to embrace it as my own.
The stroke I suffered has consumed almost six weeks of my life and has the potential to consume many more weeks or months of my life. It has been all consuming for my wife, my daughter and even some of my family and friends.
That is enough. No more. I am not going to own this thing the rest of my days. No, no and no. And No again.
I refuse to let a situation, no matter how severe, consume my life forever. Eventually, it must fade into the past and become an event that may have been a dominant part of life but does not rule me any longer.
Even if I deal with the effects of the stroke for a while down the road. I will not be, I refuse to be defined by the stroke. It does not belong to me, it does not own me and I do not own it. It is Not MY Stroke.
This whole thing belongs to my enemy. He wants me to have it. He wants me to take ownership of it. He wants to control my life forever with a past event. But I refuse.
It may affect me. It may slow me. It may delay me. But I am putting your junk back in your hands, slewfoot as quick as I can. The LORD rebuke you.
It is Not MY Stroke.
Yes, this may be semantics, just words that you and I use differently, but I believe there is value and perhaps even victory in refusing to take ownership of the things that the enemy of our soul has brought into our lives.
I am very interested in hearing what you think about this. Thank you for reading today.
Davy
