Good Plans

Jeremiah 29:11  "For I know the plans that I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for your good and not for disaster"

Parkinson's disease diagnosed in January 2012.  Up to now this is considered an incurable and progressive disease.  Then this past March I had a heart attack, and quadruple bypass surgery. Sometimes it can feel like life is just piling on and you may feel the same way at times. We can't afford to entertain those thoughts for very long.  Feeling sorry for myself is a long and dark road that is very difficult to recover from.  These are thoughts that I have to choose against all the time.

Jeremiah is sending me a different message.  He is saying that God has good plans for my life, so I am searching for them.  I may not be able to do some of the things I once did but there are things that I can still do well.  I spent years training sales people to sell insurance and I spent years leading start up churches.  The essence of what I have done was built on communication so I just need to find different avenues to use that gift.

I am finding great joy in communicating still.  I do it through the two blogs that I write on a daily basis. My life is finding purpose again as I share encouraging words with those struggling in a similar battle to the one I am fighting.

I am on a crusade to start an epidemic of hope.  This is God's good plan for me.  He has a good plan for you as well.

The Journey Continues

The journey continues.  Starting Monday August 19th I will be publishing this blog at a new website. You can find me now at battlingpd.com.  That's battling Parkinsons Disease.  This is where my health battle began on January 23rd of 2012.  At that time I was Pastoring a local church, involved in the insurance business, and living on a working 160 acre horse farm in Oglethorpe County just outside of Athens, Ga.  This is where the battle to reclaim my health began and this is what I have been writing about for these last several months.  Our new web site is designed to connect with others who are facing a serious health challenge, or know someone who is. I have a son, Andrew, who wants me to chronicle this battle from it's very inception.

I will continue to share and my wife will also share how this battle impacts her and the rest of my family.  We will also produce a video post on a weekly basis.  We are looking for new ways to help those who are feeling overwhelmed and isolated by their challenge whether it is Parkinsons, Cancer, Heart Disease or some other critical medical condition.

Our goal is simply to start an epidemic of hope and I pray that you will continue to follow along.

Join us at   www.battlingpd.com.

Enjoy the journey,  

Dan Brasher

A Bucket List

A bucket list.  Do you have one? Everyone who wants a heart filled with hope needs a bucket list.  Its a list of things you would like to do, things you would like to see, and places you would like to go in this life.  A couple of years ago my wife and I took a weeks vacation in Hawaii and we went horseback riding through an inactive volcano.  It was an incredible experience that we thoroughly enjoyed.  It had been on our personal bucket list for years.

Being told that you have a disease that is incurable can really take the wind out of your sales.  It can make you want to close the windows, pull the curtains and crawl under the sheets.  It will make you stop thinking about the future if you let it, so don't let it.

Don't let yourself get so focused on the pain of the now that you no longer see the joy of the future. Jeremiah 29:11 tells me clearly that God knows the plans he has for my life so if we are still here then God still has a plan and that involves a future.

So start thinking about a bucket list.  This will make you focus on your future and that is the beginning of hope, and hope can be a powerful force that will help us battle a powerful disease.

Making Plans

If you are like me and are facing a major health crisis then it is time for you to start making plans. Everything in you will want to stop looking forward in any way, but don't do that.  When I was diagnosed with P.D. 20 months ago a voice started in my head trying to convince me that my life was over, but you can't listen to that voice and have any hope.

Jeremish 29:11 nlt "For I know the plans that I have for you", says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

If you are facing Parkinsons, Cancer, Heart Disease or another serious illness you will need hope just to face the battle and no one can have hope without plans for the future so please, start making plans.

Isolation

We had a dog that has been with us out on our farm for many years.  His name was Barkley and our entire family loved him very much.  My wife used to joke about him that he looked like he was put together with spare parts.  He was a loyal and important part of our lives and we hated it when he got sick.

We knew that he was sick because he crawled up under the edge of our shed and wouldn't come out.  Ever since I was diagnosed with P.D. I have had to fight this same tendency because there are times when I just want to stay holed up at home. I have to continually remind myself that isolation is my enemy.

When you want to build a fire you have to stack a lot of wood in a pile because the fire will go out if the wood is scattered.  You can't keep the fire of hope burning if you spend too much time alone so get up and get out today.  Keep interacting with people and you will feel better.

A powerful message of hope...follow this link

A powerful message of hope.  Please consume at your earliest convenience.  Healing cancer from the inside out by Dr. Colin Campbell.

/www.loftcinema.com/film/healing-cancer-from-inside-out/

Contagious

As we have been battling Parkinsons and heart disease for over 20 months I have become convinced of one important truth and that is that "hope" is contagious.  When I hang out with positive, hopeful people I feel better about myself and my future...really I actually feel better after I have been around positive people.  There is a real, measurable difference in our responses to different kinds of people.

If you  hang out with angry people you'll want to fight about something, and if you hang out with disappointed people you'll want to complain.  This is true because attitudes are contagious.  Knowing this has led me to be on the lookout for positive, hopeful, forward looking people.

If you are determined to be a "grumpy Gus" please drive on by my house.

Terrorism and our health

Parkinsons and heart disease are a lot like the terrorists who attacked our nation on 911.  When they flew those planes into the world trade center buildings was not when the war started, it's just when we realized that we were at war.  This was when we woke up, developed a battle plan and started to fight back.

The day I was diagnosed by my Neurologist with Parkinsons was not when the war started.  The disease had been working against me for at least a year or more already.  This past March I had a heart attack and went through quadruple bypass surgery but the day of the initial heart attack was not when it all started.

Many of us spend years ignoring the telltale signs that we are at war already.  We want to pretend that we are safe and everything is alright until it's not and the building is coming down around us.  If you have grown up eating the standard American diet then you are already involved in a war whether you realize it or not.

Perhaps it's time for all of us to wake up, develop a plan, and start to fight back.

Encourage Others

When you are battling with disease and hopelessness you can't afford to keep you on your mind.  I was diagnosed with P.D. twenty months ago and then had a heart attack and surgery in March, but we will not allow our lives to be defined by this alone.  Our lives should be marked, instead, by purpose.  When you lose the ability to see your purpose, then you begin to just drift through life.

We live in a world that is very self consumed, but we can be different.  Every day that I wake up I can choose to focus on myself or on others.  This morning we went to visit some friends who live 90 minutes from our home.  The wife of this couple just got home from the hospital last night and we wanted to spend some time loving and encouraging them.  My wife is at lunch visiting with another friend who is struggling with some real financial troubles in their home.

No matter what we are going through right now there are people who are going through worse situations.  Hebrews 10:25 nlt tells us to "encourage one another."  Encouraging others changes my focus and connects me with purpose.  This is just one way to battle disease and hopelessness.

We Need a Plan

When this battle started I didn't have a plan for getting healthy.  I was already in my 50's and ready to just coast.  Now I have a plan for winning this battle and it doesn't include coasting, ever.  Don't try to just ignore the battle, because the enemy will not go away.

  Our bodies are overfed and undernourished.  We are overstressed and under-exercised. Our national addiction to sugar, carbs, and processed foods should be putting us on high alert, but instead many of us are just going to sleep..

You need a plan for getting healthy and it should include better eating habits, radical stress reduction, and regular exercise.  Having a plan is critical but it won't help if you don't work the plan.  One thing that I know for sure after surviving a heart attack and bypass surgery is that you can't ignore your way into a healthier life.

Incurable

Incurable is a word I have heard a lot in the past 2 years.  Lot's of men and women with Phds on their walls have told me that my medical condition is incurable but we have to realize that incurable is just a word.  It's just another way to say "not yet."  But it is not the same as never.

The Bible tells a story in Mark 5 of a woman with a blood disease for years , had spent all of her money on doctors, and yet still wasn't getting better.  I'm sure she had heard the word "incurable" many times, but when she touched the hem of Jesus garment she was made whole.

 I believe that this isn't just a story, but something that really happened. Incurable was not the last word of her life.  She won her battle and apparently went on to live a fruitful life.

If you have been told that you are facing something that is incurable, don't give up.  Incurable doesn't have to be the last word in your book.  Some people think that I am just an incurable optimist, but I can live with that.

We Need People

We need more people.  There was a time in this nation when nearly everyone had a people group.  It might be your neighborhood, or your sports team, or your job, your family or your church.  Today we have more means to connect (technology) but we actually do less real connecting.

I am currently in a battle with Parkinson's and heart disease and I know that doing more real connecting is going to be vital to winning this battle.  It seems that when we face this kind of health battle that it tends to isolate us.  I was Pastoring a small church of 60-80 people when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's but today we rarely hear from any of them.  My family has been stellar in their support but it seems as though this disease scares people.  They don't know what to say or do.  I have a message for you if you know anyone in a battle like this.  Just be there because we need people in our lives more than ever now.

People help us feel normal.  You don't need special training to be a friend.  Prov. 17:17 says that "a brother (friend) is born for times of adversity."  I want to find a way to connect with others who are in adversity because of a health challenge.  I don't have all the answers, in fact I'm still just discovering what all the questions are and that's hard for me.  I have always been a part of management and people expected me to have all the answers.  I really believe that God has all of the answers we need, but apparently He intends to use people to bring them to us.  If you feel like you need a friend please feel free to write me or comment.

Let's start a conversation about the impact of disease that can help many.

The Power of Hope

Guard your heart above all else...Prov. 4

These are words that I learned to live by in the early years of my marriage because I wanted to be faithful to my wife and we live in a world filled with moral compromise.  Instructions to safeguard my thought life are even more important to me today since I was diagnosed with what is called an "incurable and progressive" disease. My doctor told me that I had Parkinson's Disease about 20 months ago.  Since then I've also had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery.  Every time I go to the doctor's office they ask me how I'm doing with depression and I tell them I'm not depressed, although I could live there if I wanted to.

Apparently most people who are facing a battle like mine give in to depression a great deal of the time, but I have been fortunate to have spent most of my life teaching positive motivational principles in church, and in the business world.

If you are facing Parkinson's, Cancer, or Heart Disease you really need the power of a positive attitude to work for you.  It is my earnest prayer that as we walk through our own individual battles, whatever they may be, we can help one another to do just that.

The day the doctor told me I had P.D., hopelessness tried to swallow me up, but I didn't just fall off the turnip truck yesterday.  I have started several churches from scratch and managed my own sales organizations all of my adult life so I have made a JOB of overcoming negatives.

I've learned to guard my heart.  I won't sit around and think about the negative "what if's." It's vital that we focus on the positives if we are going to declare war on depression.  If we don't see any positives in our future then we must focus on positives from our past.  We all have a little screen room in our mind's eye that plays coming attractions.  We must find positive stuff to feed our heart and mind.  It's out here if we only look for it.  Every day that I go to the gym I'm grateful that I can still go.  I'm not where I want to be yet but I am getting better a little bit every week.

We can meet here, in this blogspot, everyday and find positive attitude food.  Enjoy the journey, I'm sure as hell going to!

It's a Long Road...

The battle to reclaim my health is a long race.  It took most of the first half of my life to lose my health and apparently it will take a long time to reclaim it again.  Sometimes the despair is overwhelming and I struggle with it, but I have a wife, 5 children, and 3 grandkids that all encourage me in the fight.  I spent most of my life learning about motivation and goal setting because I worked in sales so I have some personal experience that helps me but I wonder about others who are involved in a health battle.  Has your battle gotten long?  Where do you go for support and new doses of courage?  Please let me hear from you.....

Lowering the Cost of Health Care?

We are at a crisis point with our health care costs right now!  This is not something that is coming soon, it is happening now.  I saw an interview this morning  with the head of the Cleveland Clinic this and he shared some of what they are doing as a large employer to lead the way in how trying to reduce their cost of health care. Number one is they no longer hire people who smoke.  This may seem radical but apparently there are over 6,000 other employers nationwide who follow this same policy to save money on the cost of health care.  Apparently it doesn't cost as much to insure a nonsmoker. Number two is that they encourage healthier eating by changing what the kind of food they offer at the hospital.  Lower fat and sugar content and more fruits and vegetables.  Number three is they offer their employee's free memberships to Curves and fitness clubs.  The result is that thousands of pounds have been lost by huge numbers of people and the cost of healthcare for the hospital has gone down.  Better health equals lower cost.  If our nation is being strangled by the rising cost of healthcare, and it is, then why not do the same thing nationwide. Let's all get healthy and lower the cost of health care today.