Humble Pie...Anyone want a slice?

I can only imagine what it will be like,
When I walk by Your side
I can only imagine what my eyes will see,
When Your Face is before me!
I can only imagine.
I can only imagine.
Surrounded by Your Glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you, Jesus? Or in awe of You, be still?
Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing Hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine, when that day comes,
When I find myself standing in the Son.
I can only imagine, when all I will do,
Is forever, forever worship You!
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine!
Surrounded by Your Glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you, Jesus? Or in awe of You, be still?
Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing Hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine!
Surrounded by Your Glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you, Jesus? Or in awe of You, be still?
Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing Hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine!
I can only imagine,
When all I will do is forever, forever worship You!
I can only imagine!

Copyright: 1999 MercyMe


Amen.

I am so humbled by this song everytime I hear it. It makes me cry to think that such an Amazing and Caring Being would love a sinner like me. Who do you know who has UNCONDITIONAL LOVE for everyone in the entire world regardless or colour or creed?

I am so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, yet God chooses to love and care for me, even when my eyes do not follow him...

I fear that I will be lonely in Eternity without my wife and then I consider the Undying and Endless Love I will have from Jesus, and somehow I feel less afraid about spending forever and a day with My Saviour.

I can only pray that you can find the same peace I have been searching my entire life for and have only found through Jesus Christ...



Would you choose to be beaten to the edge of death, by people who just simply don't understand what your choice will do for just one person?

Would you carry your own means of execution to your place of death, meanwhile being whipped and spit on by the very people you are trying to save?


Would you lie there, with the splinters of a wooden pole ripping your flesh from your back, knowing that by sacrificing yourself, you would possibly be saving only one person in the entire history of the Earth?

If you had the power to stop it all, would you still allow huge spikes be driven through the skin of your feet and wrists, enduring enormous amounts of pain and suffering?

Would you let yourself hang in humiliation from a tree of death, looking down at those people who put you there, and still be able to forgive them, while a soldier rams a spear of cold metal into your side to see if you are truly dead?

Would you die for your best friend, if it ever came to that?

The nails that pierced the body of Jesus Christ of Nazareth did not keep Him on the Cross on Calvary's Hill..Itt was my sin and His love for me that kept Him there.

I have suffered so little in my entire life, than Jesus did in one day...

Do your problems seem a little lessstressfull and not quite so big you can't handle them with Jesus at your side?

I hope..No. Hope is not the word I mean. I pray that you will realize none of us can make it on our own... When I am weak, He is made Strong.

Be a weakling today, and let Jesus show you how fufilling your life can truly be...

Joel Sopp

A New Hope...

Some new information I found. But who has $3,500? Anybody feeling like helping me raise the money???

lol

Seriously though, $30,000 of taxpayers money is spent on the Gastric Bypass, when approx. 1/10 of that could be spent on a less invasive procedure?

That's really smart...

MONTREAL - In a North American first, doctors in Montreal on Wednesday placed air-filled balloons in the stomachs of two obese patients to help them shed weight.

The device, the size of a softball, floats in the stomach and makes patients feel full soon after eating. What's unique is that it doesn't require surgery.
Patients are sedated, and a doctor inserts the device into the stomach through a tube in the mouth. Once in place, the triple-layered silicone balloon is inflated.

The procedure takes no longer than 15 minutes.

Six to eight months later, the patient returns to have the balloon deflated and removed. Studies have shown that patients lose up to 30 kilograms solely because of the balloon.

"This is going to have a tremendous impact in fighting obesity," said Clifford Albert, who helped places the balloons in the patients at the MD Specialists clinic in Westmount.

"The beauty of this device is that it's a completely reversible solution. It's an easier and quicker way to treat obesity than gastric bypass surgery, which is permanent."

Mirielle Dube, a 65-year-old retired hospital worker, walked out of the clinic with a smile on her face after having the balloon placed in her stomach under local anesthesia.

"I'm confident that I'll be able to play with my two granddaughters again," said Dube, who is 5-foot-2 and weighs 187 pounds.

Dube gained considerable weight three years ago after she stopped her daily walks because of a foot injury. She confessed to eating lots of fast-food and bread, and has tried all the fad diets in vain.

"I would never consider gastric bypass surgery," she said. "It's too dangerous and the waiting lists are too long. Hopefully, this balloon will give me the momentum to change my eating habits."

Health Canada approved the balloon last December. The device and procedure costs $3,500 per patient and is not covered under medicare.

There are some side effects like acid reflux, nausea in the days after the procedure and mild pain in the upper curvature of the stomach that could radiate to the shoulder.

Dube said she felt fine, though, an hour after the procedure.

The balloon is manufactured in France by Helioscopie SA. Since it was approved in that country in April 2004, doctors have placed more than 1,300 in patients.
It's a second-generation technology. There is another intra-gastric balloon, manufactured by BioEnterics Corporation, that is filled with a saline solution. A study by a French gastroenterologist has shown that the rate of complications from the saline-filled balloon is much higher than the air-filled one.

"The advantage to this balloon is that it positions itself to the top of the stomach, where there are receptors that give a sensation of being full," explained Hubert Cluadez, author of the study.

The balloon was initially recommended for the morbidly obese to help them lose weight before risky gastric-bypass surgery. But doctors discovered that the balloon could also render surgery unnecessary.
Gastric-bypass surgery, which drastically changes the anatomy of the stomach, has a death rate of two per 100 patients in the first month after an operation, increasing to five in the first year. Its $30,000 cost is covered under medicare.

Please leave your comments and let me know your thoughts.

Until then I remain,

Joel Sopp

Hey Fatty! Get your fatty fat butt over here...

Joel's fight against FAT

So, I weigh approximately 398 lbs, although you can't tell by looking at me. I've been told I "carry it well". I think that's supposed to be a compliment, but I really think it's a saying to make FAT people feel better about being OBESE.

OBESE/OBESITY : Obesity is a condition where natural energy reserve, stored in the fatty tissue of humans and mammals is increased to a point where it is thought to be a significant risk factor for certain health conditions as well as increased mortality. Obesity in wild animals is relatively rare, but it is common in domestic animals like pigs and household pets who may be overfed and underexercised.
Excessive body weight has been shown to correlate with various important diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep apnea and osteoarthritis. It is also considered a risk factor for certain cancers. Interventions, such as diet and exercise as well as medication and weight-loss surgery in severe cases are frequently recommended to reduce the risk of developing disease.

This chart compares BOB obesity figures in the population of OECD countries; it shows the percentage of total population (aged 15 and above) with a body-mass index greater than 30. The year the figures used for this chart were published, collected or compiled range from 1996 to 2003.

BRUTAL ! ! ! Canada is the 8th FATTEST Country of these Nations!


I am not sure if I am predisposed by My Country, My DNA, My Upbringing, or My Lifestyle, but I will tell you that I am sick and FRICKIN' tired of being FAT !
I am on a 3 year waiting list to have a Gastric Bypass with a Duo-Denal Switch Surgery.

Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch

Malabsorptive operations, such as a biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch (BPD/DS), restrict both food intake and the amount of calories and nutrients the body absorbs.In this procedure, a larger portion of the stomach is left intact, including the pyloric valve that regulates the release of contents from the stomach into the small intestine. The duodenum is divided near this valve and small intestine divided as well. The portion of the small intestine connected to large intestine is attached to the short duodenal segment next to the stomach. The remaining segment of the duodenum connected to the pancreas and gallbladder is attached to this limb closer to the large instestine. Where contents from these two segments mix is called the common channel, which dumps into the large intestine.

Scary as anything I can think of in my ENTIRE LIFE !

Any Feedback or Prayer will help.

I hope I make the correct Final Decision as my 3 year wait for Surgery could be done as early as this time next year...

Joel

Me and my little Sister, Karlinda about 28-29 years ago 

The many faces of Logan  

The many faces of Braiden 

Logan being silly 

The Kewl Mr. B 

The Real Joel Sopp 

The Sopp Clan 

"...just struggling to make the ends of my life meet..."

And so begins Joel's first blog...

Where can I start?

First and Foremost, I want to thank Jeremy Sawatzky http://jeremysawatzky.blogspot.com/2005/03/stumbling.html

for inspiring me to create my own Blog.

You don't know me, Jeremy, but you will...

I am Joel Sopp.

I am a father of two wonderful boys, Braiden and Logan. I have married to the same woman, Shelley, for 8 years as of Oct/10/2006.

I am a Personal Banker with one of the Five Big Banks on Canada for 5 years as of Apr/30/2006, which coincides with my little sister, Karlinda's 30th Birthday.

Speaking of siblings, I have my Sister Karlinda, My Brother Nick,and my other Sister Alia.

If you haven't noticed, I have been talking about everyone else but myself. And with good reason...I just can't think of it. lol

Interesting Thought...

Have you ever felt like you needed to belong somewhere sooo bad, that you'd be willing to do or be anything you thought would include you in a project or a group of people you desired to be a part of?

That's me...

Joel Sopp a.k.a. The Chameleon

I was told in Grade 5, by my Home-Room Teacher, Glenn Verity, that because I was a "Sopp" (because of our financial situation, we were considered a 3rd Class family), I'd be nothing more than a Ditch Digger the rest of my life... Not exactly edifying knowledge to have at 11 years old, my life had been pre-ordained to nothing more than a dirt mover for the next 80 some odd years...

Needless to say, my self-esteem was not at an all-time high, so I started unconciously changing who I was and portrayed myself to be to other people, by talking, looking, acting, being different than who I was, but instead what the situation called for me to be like.

a side note:

I took Psychology 101 at Briercrest Bible College in Caronport, Saskatchewan, and learned a great deal about myself... What impacted me the most from that class, was Jim Baldry teaching my to look inside not only myself, but also my soul. Jim said, "Take every situation you have ever been in, and every way you ever acted or reacted, then how you feel you handled the situation and turn it into a moving portrait on the wall in a frame...

eep!

So this is what I came up with:

I was a Chameleon on a Branch, which reresented my "world", sitting in front of an everchanging backdrop of life. And the more the backdrop changed, the more I changed to keep up with it, until my colouring was a little bit of every backgroud I had been placed/forced/ended up in front of. This defense mechanism, which was intended to protect me, instead caused me to become lost to whom I truly was inside.

Now the scary part was, is that there was a Phantom Hand holding a stick, and constantly swinging at me to knock me off of my "Branch" to make me fall and reveal who I truly was inside. For years after that class I swore it was people trying to make me face the One True Joel; in retrospect, maybe it was God who was allowing me to be swung at to allow me to realize what I had done to myself.

Now 13 years after that class, I sit here at my computer wondering if the Chameleon in me is resurfacing... I find myself acting one way in public, and yet another way for 60 minutes on Sundays...

WHY MUST I ACT LIKE A SON OF GOD FOR AN HOUR ON SUNDAYS, BUT ACT LIKE AN ORPHAN FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK???

Well for my first post ever, I said more than I thought I would. I hope that I can continue to post my thoughts and feelings and that they would allow me to deal with any issues I have, and possibly allow someone else to relate to what I have gone through..

Until Next Time,

I remain Joel Sopp