Recovering from Knee Replacement Surgery

April 26, 2026
 
Reflections from the Heart of Allan Redenius
Between one and ten, what is your pain level?  Well duh... I just had knee replacement surgery.  I'll tell you what my pain level is!  It's 35!!  If ever you need to have knee replacement surgery, just plan on a painful recovery.  They don't tell you that at the beginning, probably for good reason.  
 
After a few days of recovery and doing absolutely nothing, the endorphins in my brain are beginning to fire, telling me to do something.  So, to alleviate the pain, I'm trying to recall some of my childhood memories, some of which I may have recorded before.

• Whether Dad had bought this calf, or it was born on the farm, Blackie, was kind of the runt, small one.  Always rooting for the underdog, over time Blackie and I became friends.  As a little calf, she would suck my thumb.  Even as a 600# heifer, Blackie always came up and wanted to suck my thumb.  What was I thinking?  You've heard of people who are “all thumbs.”  With one little chomp, I could have been thumbless.  Without thumbs, there would be no space between my words. 😊  
• On October 4, 1957, Russia launched and orbited a satellite named Sputnik.  I remember laying out in the grass after dark watching that little dot of light high in the sky move from horizon to horizon.  Instead of watching with wonder, I remember watching in fear.  If the Russians could accomplish this feat, certainly nuclear holocaust was not far behind.  As the newscaster Walter Cronkite always closed his evening news report with this comment, “That's the way it is,” that's the way it was in 1957.  Everyone lived in fear of the Russians.
• That same summer, I remember stringing a #9 wire between two trees and draping a canvas over the wire to make a tent.  “Mom, I want to sleep outside in my tent tonight.”  The sky was clear, the snacks were in place, the temperature was beautiful, the world was ready for me to conquer the outdoor night.  All too soon, the sky began to cloud up, the snacks were gone, and the temperature began to cool.  I could have overcome all of that.  However, what I could not overcome was the fear of an atomic bomb blowing me away to someplace unknown.  Reasoning that it would be safer in the house, to safety in the house I retreated.  Now I know even that was flawed thinking.
  

So, now I've given you a couple of memories from my past.  Have any of these helped alleviate my pain?  No!  What seems to help me the most is to think of Jesus whenever I am in pain, realizing His pain was so much more than mine.  I generally don't cry with pain, but when I think of the pain that Jesus endured on the cross, tears well up in my eyes.
 
Lov’n Jesus!
Pastor Allan
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