The worst thing that I experience with my Parkinson’s disease is the pain that I have in my muscles most of the time. It is sort of like a Charlie horse or what you feel when you have worked out super hard after not doing any exercise for months. There are a couple of situations when the pain goes away. One of them is when I am peddling my stationary bike. It takes about 5 minutes of peddling before it is mostly gone. The first 5 minutes it is much worse and then goes away. I think that initial increase in the pain is what keeps many Parkinson’s people from exercising much. The second situation where I have zero pain is when I am preaching or teaching. At first I thought it was just a matter of not noticing because I was so focused on my message, but this weekend I really paid attention, and I am sure that almost immediately when I start teaching that the pain is totally gone. This morning in the first service that starts at 9 am I was in more pain than usual as I was walking around the foyer before the service welcoming people and handing out bulletins. I was smiling and cheerfully greeting people, but inwardly I was groaning. After a couple of worship songs I got up to welcome people, make some announcements, and pray and ask God’s blessing on the service. It was very difficult getting out of the chair and walking up the two steps to the pulpit, and I thought to myself, it is going to be a long morning. After a couple more songs and a “special music” I got up to preach, and by the time I finished the first point I was totally pain free. The second service was the same and I was even more attentive to if it was really gone or if I was just imagining it to the point that I lost my train of thought while speaking. Thank You Lord. I guess I will have to increase the time I spend teaching and preaching.