The theme for today is: Shelter.

Psalm 61:3. David cries. God shelters. David experienced it.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Experience is the nurse of faith.”

King David. A life of trials and hardships. Many brought on by others. Many brought on by himself. He fled for his life, hid in caves, lived like an outlaw, experienced profound guilt, suffered in shame, ached in anguish, was subjected to injustice, groaned with mental and physical affliction, felt extreme exhaustion, shook in terror and fear, and cried, and cried, and cried, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed.

He also remembered. In his desperation, he doesn’t ask for shelter and protection. He doesn’t ask for it. He remembers it. He remembers that God has always been his refuge, his shelter. He’s experienced it. Life experience. He’s a veteran. Been there done that. So, it’s not, “Be my refuge or be my shelter,” but rather, “You are my refuge, you are my shelter.” Faith. Confidence. Assurance.

Zach is suffering. Whether in pain, delirium, or his brain injury, he is suffering a profound hardship. We don’t know what he must be thinking. We’re not sure how much he recognizes our voices, our cries, our laughter, our prayers. We’re asking God daily for so many miracles. Maybe Zach is too, in his own way. Who knows? But we’ll keep asking and we’ll keep praying.

But we’ll also keep remembering. Refuge and shelter. We won’t ask for it. We’ll remember it. God is our refuge and shelter. God is Zach’s refuge and shelter. Faith. Confidence. Assurance. We’re experiencing it.

Today’s Updates:

Today was another busy day for Zach. He was very restless and not relaxing with his pain medications. After trying a few different methods, they started a continuous infusion of a non-opioid pain med that seemed to settle Zach. The doctors want Zach to be relaxed so that his body can focus its energy into healing.

Zach’s level of alertness is unchanged, but we will give a brief description here for those who were wondering. Zach’s eyes are open, sometimes he makes eye contact but he doesn’t follow anything with his eyes. When he’s restless, he tenses his neck and moves his limbs around in large movements, often swinging his legs off the bed. He will also arch his back, press his hips up off the mattress, and grimace. This is hard to see because we don’t want Zach to be scared or uncomfortable. The doctors say it’s hard to tell if Zach’s restlessness is caused by pain or by a neurological cause like his brain hypoxia or delirium. For now, they are focusing on keeping Zach as comfortable and relaxed as possible without fully sedating him.

Zach has been off the ventilator but on oxygen through the trach mask for two days now. Zach had another chest X-ray today and his lungs look unchanged from yesterday, so they will keep in the chest tubes a little longer.

A member of the plastics team came by today to look at Zach’s right hand. The plastics team specializes in reconstructive surgery. They said there is a very real possibility that Zach will lose his entire right hand, but they will give us their full assessment later this week. Vascular surgery is following Zach’s feet and we haven’t heard any updates.

Please continue to pray with us to our healing God who knows our every need.

“For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.” (Psalm 61:3)