I am four weeks from my left hip replacement surgery. I had my last physical therapy session yesterday, and I have my final doctor’s appointment next week, when they will X-ray my hip and declare me healed and good as new. I leave for Alaska on July 14th and expect to slay the salmon more than usual with my new mobility. The orthopedic surgeon had said when they looked at my X-rays before my surgery that my right hip seemed as bad as my left, but right now it doesn’t hurt at all, so I think I will leave it alone until it does get to hurting, if it ever does. My left hip had gotten so bad that it was hard for me to stand up straight. It is nice to be taller than my wife again. I often wonder what they did for various health issues, even a few hundred years ago. There are so many health issues in the weekly prayer letter; most of them would have been untreatable back then. I guess they prayed a lot, suffered, and died sooner than we do. I try very hard not to take any blessings from God for granted, and to thank Him constantly for them. A major blessing that would be easy to take for granted is that I was born in 1948, in the United States, to the parents I had, and with the history I have had. None of that was I responsible for; God decided it all. Did he have a plan for my life, or was it just a matter of chance?

Psalms 139:16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance. And in your book were all the days that were ordained for me, when there was not one of them.

I have a responsibility to be a good steward of the life God has sovereignly given me, to never take it for granted, and to thank Him constantly.