I preached today at The Evangelical Church and will share a few minutes in my good friend, Dave Kennedy’s memorial service this afternoon. I can get in and out of bed without help from Patty, bathroom visits are no longer a trial, and I am exercising faithfully every day. My hip replacement surgery seems to be healing up fine. One of the things that I have discovered is that there are a lot of people who have had hip replacement surgeries. Once I realized this, I also found that most of them wanted to talk to me about theirs and to give me some advice from their experience. There are right and wrong ways to respond to these people. One way is as a busy person who doesn’t want to take the time for this long, boring conversation that I have already had umpteen times. The other way to respond is with grace, humility, kindness, and consideration for the other person. I know myself well enough to know that if I don’t pre-meditate my responses, I will go the first route most of the time, but if I think about it and decide what the loving thing to do is, I will do much better. One of the things I know well is that we all go through life planting seeds daily based on our actions, choices, and words. We will soon reap the blessings or consequences of those seeds we have sown. Because we are slow to connect the dots in our lives, we are unaware of why blessings or curses are happening to us. I always tell people that wise people choose to do things all day long that God promises to bless. That seems like a wise way to live life to me.