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- SHERYL & STEVE FROEHLICH - LIVING THE STORY THAT GOD'S GRACE IS ENOUGH
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Fridays with Froehlichs #5 |
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How can 5,000 people be wrong?
That's how many people are in Sheryl's humeral head fracture support group, all of whom are in various stages of recovery. Everyone tells the same sad story: recovery is long and painful. While that's not the most encouraging word, it is helpful to keep things in perspective.
Pictures? You want pictures? We can do that.
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If you pray, please ask the Lord for the pain to subside, for Sheryl to have good sleep, for healing to be complete, and for her to keep her spirits up. Because of her recovery timeline, we are pushing back our trip to South Africa a few months to August-September.
Since January 30, the date of the fall, our lives have been dominated by all the things related to Sheryl's recovery: medical appointments, ice, physical therapy, ice, snippets of sleep, ice... and more ice. The irregular rhythms have totally disrupted our sleep patterns. As a result, reading and concentration have been difficult. All of that to say, we are finally able to post the next (and slightly longer) edition of Fridays with Froehlichs.
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Hope
"Christian hope needs to be consciously practiced because it does not come naturally. It has nothing to do with having a sunny disposition or an optimistic reading of the situation in which we find ourselves. Hope is a commitment, a spiritual discipline to practice.... The Hebrew word for hope in the Psalms, ‘qavah’ (הוָק), ... means a straight line between two points. In this case it represents a line drawn between what God has done in the past and what God has yet to do in the future. The one who prays to God in hope is something like a climber in a dangerous passage, holding onto that line for his life, while moving along the passage filled with fear and uncertainty... Hope in God is practiced always in precarious situations. Hoping in God is the most courageous form of trust."
Ellen Davis, Professor of Bible & Practical Theology, Duke Divinity School
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Grace
“Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude."
General Loewenhielm in "Babette's Feast" by Isak Dinesen
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“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations.”
JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit
Sheryl here. Today I am 80 days post proximal humerus fracture in 3 places and mark 10 weeks post ORIF (Open Reduction Displacement Fixation)/biceps tenodesis surgery. My fractured, displaced, comminuted (bone broken into 3 or more pieces) humerus now held together with a plate and 12 screws was X-rayed again yesterday and the surgeon confirmed the plate was holding its intended position and the bone is healing. Furthermore, my nearly 7 inch surgical incision has closed without complication and after 8 weeks of physical therapy I am steadily regaining functional ROM (range of motion). A few days ago I resumed driving (by myself - Steve was suddenly "busy"), and as of yesterday I can lift up to 4 cans of pumpkin pie filling (that's 5 pounds or 2.3 kg) with my left arm. I can absolutely measure progress. And yet with all these gains, I am nowhere near anything approximating ‘normal.’
I have honed my recliner sleeping skills. After 11 weeks of healing and therapy, I am still unable to lie flat on my back or to sleep on my side. Positioning and re-positioning in the living room chair during the wee hours makes for grueling nights and for bleary-eyed sluggish days. And the pain. It becomes acute with therapy and continues in the hours after. Silly me… I left the dragon out of my calculations. I thought I would have conquered the worst of the pain at this point. So now in addition to exercising grit and determination through the pain of physical therapy, I must continue to recalibrate my expectations, fastening my hope not on my projected recovery timeline but on His grace and sufficiency for whatever, however, whenever recovery is realized. |
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This Lenten season, now Eastertide approaching Pentecost (we've been drafting this post for a while) I have needed to return to "Square One" (Eugene Peterson) again and again.
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“If I shall look at the world through tears,
perhaps I shall see things that, dry-eyed, I could not see.”
Nicholas Wolterstorff |
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(c) Steph Edwards, @toyoufromsteph
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“We do not progress in the Christian life
by becoming more competent, more knowledgeable,
more virtuous, or more energetic.
We do not advance in the Christian life
by acquiring expertise.
Each day, and many times a day, we return to Square One:
God Said. … We adore and we listen.”
Eugene Peterson, Subversive Spirituality |
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National Poetry Month
More Sheryl: April is National Poetry Month. This article, "Poetry as Hospitality," by Anna Friedrich in Common Good has resonated deeply with me this 'fractured season.' Many days since January 30th amidst the fog of insomnia and pain I have found 'a little text, carefully crafted, read in a few breaths, [to be] a resting place." Poetry can offer "a generative, visceral relief," to borrow from Friedrich. Here's an excerpt to tease your interest reading the article in full:
"Poems hold a great deal of white space, or blank space. If you print out a poem and hold it up before you, or find a page of poetry and pull it a little ways from your face, and blur your eyes, you’ll see how much is left unsaid. Huge sections of the page are left empty. This is intrinsic to the craft, this holding absence.
Poems are distilled word-craft, so the poet must continually struggle with what to delete or leave out. Poems are dense. As I’ve written elsewhere, the poet’s job is to attend to word and white space. This is a visual and (I’ll risk saying) visceral relief to readers who are experiencing loss, or living through the aftermath of a tragedy. They, too, are holding absence every day. A chunk of prose that fills the whole page, line after weary line, might be overwhelming for someone in grief. But just a little text, carefully crafted, read in a few breaths, can be a resting place."
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Alexei Navalny
Since reading Dick Keyes' True Heroism almost 30 years ago, we have been more keenly alert to the absence of great leadership in the world. Among national and world leaders heroes are in short supply. No doubt you, like us, know of people that can properly be called heroes -- officers, soldiers, teachers, fire fighters, parents, farmers, artists, shop workers, and neighbors who live sacrificially, wisely, and courageously. In meaningful everyday and extraordinary ways they mirror the character of the Ultimate Hero. But, there are few heroic leaders on the national or global stage. Until recently 2 have captured our admiration and respect: Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Alexei Navalny. Now there is one.
In 2020, Alexei Navalny, outspoken activist and political opponent of Vladimir Putin, survived an attack on his life. It is generally assumed he was poisoned by the Kremlin. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in 1931 to be with his people and continue his work, Navalny returned to Moscow in 2021. Immediately he was arrested and imprisoned in Siberia. Then, on February 16, Navalny was murdered in prison because of his courageous call for the Russian people to stand against Putin and for freedom. While faith alone does not make a person heroic, Navalny lived and died affirming "I am a believer." He saw his activism and leadership as obedience to the call of Jesus, "to hunger and thirst for righteousness." I want to honor Navalny as a hero even as I continue to pray that Zelekskyy's leadership continues to succeed in the liberaton of Ukraine and the defence of Europe.
Russell Moore penned a tribute to Navalny in Christianity Today.
Benedict Cumberbatch reads one of Navalny's last letters from prison.
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"Ukrainian Family" Marc Chagall (1943) |
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The Eclipse
Longtime dear friends, Jonathan & Donna, trekked to NY to meet up with special mutual friend, Kris, and us to view the eclipse at Ravines winery in Geneva, NY. It was Sheryl's very first, long-anticipated, get-out-of-the-house social event after surgery - she was giddy even before the wine-tasting. The eclipse happened as was widely reported, but thanks to heavily overcast skies, we did not see even a sliver. It got eerily dark, and the birds stopped chirping. But we had a lovely time anyway. Evidence below.
NLPC alum, Luke Leisman, authored an article, "An Eclipse Is Evidence of Things Unseen," published in Christianity Today. Luke is a research professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His wife, Katelyn, also a NLPC alum, is an assistant research professor in the Engineering Sciences and Applied Math department at Northwestern.
Also below, the rare Oreo eclipse. Rare, because (reportedly) most Oreo eclipses usually never make it past the 3rd phase. |
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Book Notes
Suffering, Faith, Adoption, & Friendship
Wendy Kiyomi
Wendy, a NLPC alum, is an adoptive parent, scientist, and writer in Tacoma, Washington, whose work on the topics of suffering, faith, adoption, and friendship has appeared in Plough, Englewood Review of Books, Christianity Today, and on wendykiyomi.com. Our hunch is that these articles will one day be chapters in a book.
A Stranger in My House (2022)
Lord When Did We See You in Foster Care (2024)
Land of My Sojourn
Mike Cosper
Marvin Olasky reviews Mike Cosper's memoir, Land of My Sojourn, which takes a hard look at the intersection of modern evangelicalism and politics. |
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Lee Abby. Photo by Corinne de Klerk
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Scrip & Scrippage
Steve here. Over the past 25 years, the fellowship of local pastors has been a significant part of my life, personally and professionally. My life has been folded into a partnership with these colleagues as together we serve as elders of the Church in Ithaca through the several congregations we represent. We share remarkable affection, trust, and respect. I've written 2 pieces about 2 of my colleagues, and I'm glad to share them with you as a way of honoring them.
"Here We Are"
Ray Crognale, Covenant Love Chrisitian Church
"The Sacred Desk"
Steve Jones, The Refuge Temple of Jesus Christ
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Serving in South Africa - updates!
We've been extended an invitation to travel to South Africa in 2024 to serve students at the Univ of Stellenbosh and the community of Christ Church in Stellenbosch. Click here to get details.
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Benediction
Now take this dream, this husk, this chaff of my desire,
and give it back reformed and remade
according to your better vision,
or do not give it back at all.
Not my dreams, O Lord, not my dreams,
but yours, be done.
From "A Liturgy for the Death of a Dream"
in Every Moment Holy Volume I
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Please take a few moments to browse the website
Grace Unscripted.
Please prayerfully consider supporting our work through Grace Unscripted.
Visit the Support page.
Thank you. |
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