For several days this has come on the local radio station and then just rolled about in my soul. Undoubtedly “His word is unfailing, His promise secure!” Such GREAT harmony from these three men! So wish I could memorize the Spanish, “Todo es va estar bien.” I know some of those words from high school Spanish.
This song was popular about 3 years ago. It is still fitting today. Especially as I face shoulder surgery this week. Aunt Norma (now deceased and my mother also deceased) used to sing “He’s got the whole world in His hands” to us when we were very young. I do not know if Aunt Norma ever went to church, but my mother, the child of a Methodist preacher, and Norma instilled this faith in us through their faith. Did someone sing it to you or with you when you were a child?
Regardless of the outcome of surgery the following will remain the song of my soul.
It never ceases to amaze me how the Holy Spirit can give us direction and comfort especially in uncertain circumstances. He is with us and in us.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Said Jesus recorded in John 14:20 NIV
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me….”
Jesus prayed recorded in John 17:20-21 NIV
Everything will be all right. The whole world’s in His hands. He is my all in all.
Paul said, “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we are indeed His offspring.”
Acts 17:28 RSV
It bears repeating Everything will be all right. The whole world’s in His hands. He is my all in all.
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Surgery on my right shoulder is planned for next Thursday, January 11! Partial tear of rotator cuff, remove bone spurs, check biceps attachment. When I woke up at 4AM in pain this morning I was more than ready to take the surgery. Procedure will be arthroscopically, i.e., tiny incisions where tools and camera go in and surgeon makes repairs through them.
Ever since I got the news I have been working like crazy to get ready. Got my hair cut 5 inches so Bob does not have as much to wash or brush. See, I will be a sling for quite a while and not much use as to my typical duties. I am so grateful he is here to help me!
Pre-op physical is next Monday. I have had to change all my prescriptions to a new pharmacy due to insurance changes. Have them all filled and in the building. Boxes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime are filled for 3 weeks worth! Imagine trying to open a pill bottle with one hand, especially your non-dominant hand.
My neighbor was very generous to loan me her ice machine. Nifty machine that holds iced water which it pumps through tubes into a pad that cools the surgery area.
I had this surgery 20 years ago and for the life of me cannot remember how I got dressed! The surgery will be outpatient at Ortho Cincy surgical center. I will go home with an abduction sling. Have not tried it on yet. They will put it on me after surgery. Bob will be my driver and care giver.
Looks something like this
The recliner will be my sleeping location as lying down and getting up out of the bed will be something I have to progress towards. I will not be able to clean up my sleeping area (think sheet and blankets with assorted pillows). The guilt is already building. I am married to “Mr. Tidy” and I try to do my part to keep the common areas of the house tidy. My desk? That is another matter.
How does one prepare to be helpless and passive with a smile? Hard to be jolly about that kind of surrender. Yet I am going to try! “What ever is good, pure, lovely, worthy of praise, etc”
So yes, I would appreciate your prayers. All this weird positioning is never good for the arthritis and fibromyalgia. Imagine me with ice machine on my shoulder and heating pad behind my back! Woohoo, such a sight. No photos will follow…I might try dictating a post when I get off pain meds. Likely too hard to type for a while. I will have so much time to think up ideas for this blog!!
Today we listed all the frozen foods in our deep freeze. Made 2 large chicken pot pies with Pillsbury crusts. We have many frozen soups, meat sealed with gravy or broth, etc. Green chicken chili, black beans,etc, Mom’s vegetable soup recipe. Not to mention frozen pizza for Bob and the foods friends will drop off.
Minimum weeks in a sling, months in physical therapy. I will need gallons of patience and I find that ice cream cannot provide that. Drats! I will have Bob post for me after surgery. I am certain it will go well. Trusting the Father and rejoicing that I will have this repair.
This was a musical in 1971. Wiki[edia reports, “The show is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music mostly set to lyrics from traditional hymns, with the passion of Christ appearing briefly near the end.”
These lyrics have been rolling in my head for a couple weeks. Naturally that leads to a blog post!
Where are you going? Where are you going? Can you take me with you? For my hand is cold And needs warmth Where are you going?
Far beyond where the horizon lies Where the horizon lies And the land sinks into mellow blueness Oh please, take me with you
Let me skip the road with you I can dare myself I can dare myself I'll put a pebble in my shoe And watch me walk (watch me walk) I can walk and walk! (I can walk!)
I shall call the pebble Dare I shall call the pebble Dare We will talk, we will talk together We will talk (chorus) about walking Dare shall be carried And when we both have had enough I will take him from my shoe, singing: "Meet your new road!" Then I'll take your hand Finally glad Finally glad That you are here By my side
By my side By my side By my side
So what of it? Well, they remind me to remember the LORD regardless of life circumstances. At times I am the pebble Dare, and at other times I need the challenge to remember We walk together.
Hard to ignore a pebble in your shoe. I am more likely to have a pebble in my pocket. Or a large wooden bead. Or something to bring my attention back to Him. I challenge you to carry something as a reminder throughout your day to turn again to Christ and walk together.
My Grandgirl had an iPhone into the sky moment over the Christmas holidays. She and her boyfriend were on the roller coaster at the Kings Island amusement park. Her parents had just purchased a new iPhone for her through their cellular plan. She had it in the pocket of her sweatpants. As the ride hit a turn, her iPhone became the iPhone in the sky and not having airborne abilities it went flying away in the dark. You probably guessed it. Her parents had not bought insurance for the phone as ‘she never loses anything.’ Ouch. An eighteen year old with a huge problem.
They tried to find the phone, to no avail. They used a tracking program and it was reported to be at a certain location near some trees. The staff could not find it. Meanwhile some of the family was praying for a miracle. In some way, my daughter was able to lock it. Still not found. “First world problem” indeed!
After a couple days of anguish my Grandgirl received a phone call. The park had found it. They had her state some identifying factors. She drove up to get it. It was not broken or cracked or anything. It had just taken a night flight and then was returned. (Sort of like that kid who was trying to travel from Tampa to Cleveland and wound up in Puerto Rico? Only the iPhone could not read.)
As Anita sang in the West Side Story song America, “Smoke on your pipe and put that in!” Just listen to the first minute!
In “Cry of the Deer” chapter on the Communion of Saints, he wrote
We all have minds that are hard to control! But ways have been discovered of helping to keep us reasonably on the right track. If the mind records everything we experience, we should be careful what we record on it. We can to some extent choose. There will always be a mixture of good and evil, of life and destruction, but we can influence the mixture by deliberate choice. Quite often, our attitude to what we do will influence our attitude in the future. It is with this insight that the writer to the Philippians says
4 May you always be joyful in your union with the Lord. I say it again: rejoice!
5 Show a gentle attitude toward everyone. The Lord is coming soon. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. 7 And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus.
8 In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. 9 Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you.
Good News Bible Philippians 4:4-9
One of the great illnesses of modern society is our efforts to control others. This often develops unconsciously in homes where alcoholism is rampant. I spent several years in Adult Children of Alcoholics doing workbooks and learning about this insidious coping mechanism. It can grow into a monster that can become as destructive as the alcoholism itself. Between ACoA and my study of Christian historical writers I learned that the only one I can hope to control is myself. Even that, is a lifelong arduous task!
When Paul wrote to the Philippians he knew the work of taking charge over our thoughts and what we allow to dwell there. So as David Adam wrote, what is your attitude toward what you do, the attitude that will influence your attitude in the future? Weighty topic but so worth exploring.
25 three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water. 26 In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from my own people and from Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends. 27 There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing. 28 And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 When someone is weak, then I feel weak too; when someone is led into sin, I am filled with distress.
2 Corinthians 11:25-29 GNT
Most of us are unlikely to experience being stoned, shipwrecked and many of the other things he lists. Many of us work and toil, have had dangers from false friends. Without food, shelter, or clothing not to mention thirsty? not so much for most Americans. But can we with Paul focus our busy, busy minds on those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable? David Adam agrees with Paul that ways have been discovered to help us do that. Have you even tried them? Are you willing to challenge yourself to do these things from the Philippians list and then return quarterly to check up on how you are doing at the new ways of thinking?
There is a book about the challenge of a “Grumble-free year.”
USA Today bestselling author Tricia Goyer and her family of eleven embark on a yearlong quest to eliminate grumbling from their home and discover a healthier, more thankful approach to life together. The Goyer home–with two parents, eight kids, and one eighty-eight-year-old grandmother with dementia–is never without noise, mess, activity, and, often, complaining. And it’s not just the kids grumbling. After adding seven children in less than six years through adoption, the Goyer family decided to move out of survival-mode and into unity- and growth-mode. They decided to tackle the a grumble-free year. With grade-schoolers, teenagers, and a grandmother who believes children should be seen and not heard, plenty of room exists for flunking the challenge. Add to that seven children being homeschooled together in close quarters, and what could possibly go awry? In The Grumble-Free Year , the Goyers invite readers into their journey as they go complaint-free and discover what it looks like to develop hearts of gratitude. They share their plans, successes, failures, and all the lessons they learn along the way, offering real-life action steps based in scripture so that readers get not just a front-row seat to the action but also an opportunity to take the challenge themselves and uncover hearts that are truly thankful.
Whew! Makes me tired just reading the review. And I read the book! My life is nowhere as complicated as theirs. Is yours? Might you be able to tackle just 3 months of Paul’s admonition to think on whatever is true, noble, right, lovely, pure, honorable, praiseworthy – those kinds of things. Thought control, because your attitude today will influence your attitude in the future.
Get a 3 x 5 card or 4 x 6 card, even a post-it note. Write out the Philippians verse for your own use. Put it on the bathroom mirror, in your wallet, on your phone screen, in your car, coat pocket IN OTHER WORDS before your eyes, heart and mind. Practice it. Challenge yourself to be more gentle, more peaceful, less worried, more trusting and joyful in your union with Christ. What a grand and glorious 2024 that will make! It is going to take practice but will result in a holy skill. They say it takes at least 21 days to learn a new habit. I plan to review this once a quarter and if I need to get a “do over” or “Mulligan” I will give myself the grace to try again and again. I pray you too will try this! Good luck!!
For older folks, if their prescription drug coverage insurance company changed it means calling the new pharmacy to transfer your prescriptions from the other pharmacy to the new one. This morning the new pharmacy said my insurance card numbers did not work. What? the insurance company issued it. They said to just bring it in when refill is ready and they will work with me on it. Not a good beginning!
Are your Christmas decorations put away yet? Not all of mine. So far, we have undecorated the artificial tree. It is prelit but the weather has been so Ohio Gloomy that we have just left it up to brighten the room. Grandgirl will come help me put away nativity set on Wednesday. She is also tall enough that it is easy for her to clean the tops of the kitchen cabinets that do not go all the way to the ceiling. Our lights on the back deck will stay put until Valentine’s day. Another effort to push back the darkness.
Ha! Just realized that by then two of my neighbors who are both expecting baby boys will likely have given birth! Oh I do love babies. My husband calls me the baby whisperer.
But my passion might be mitigated by shoulder surgery. Still waiting to hear if that has been scheduled. My surgeon is having surgery for pinched nerve in his neck something like January 18? If he can’t get me in before then, I might have to wait until he recovers. Thanksgiving 2022 I pulled something in my shoulder. Later x-rays and MRI showed partially torn rotator cuff. Had 2 bouts of PT. The steroid injection last spring/summer did not provide lasting pain relief 6 months. I hurt it again last week when I reached across the counter for a piece of waxed paper. Not even lifting! Now reaching for the salt shaker hurts. Let’s just suffice it to say I am eager to have this fixed, but do so want to hold newborn babies.
Another year and always more health challenges for those of us blessed to be growing older. Thank You LORD for giving us life and love for another year. You have brought us safely this far. We trust You to walk with us into the future. We know You are the only thing going on for eternity. So we clasp Your hand in faith and with joy, knowing that we are never alone. You are always with us.
How do you worship God? Brandon Lake wrote a song with Benjamin William Hastings and Dante Brown entitled Gratitude. Part of it goes,
I’ve got one response I’ve got just one move With my arm stretched wide I will worship You
So I throw up my hands And praise You again and again ‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah Hallelujah And I know it’s not much But I’ve nothing else fit for a King Except for a heart singing hallelujah Hallelujah
Gratitude
When I awoke on the morning of December 27th in my heart I heard, “So I throw up my hands and praise You again and again.” As you might know by now if you follow this blog, the Holy Spirit often draws me and speaks to me through Christian music both contemporary and a century old. As I pondered how to complete this counting of days that we call a calendar year I realized the truth that our concept of time just folds and unfolds itself regardless of these numbers and monthly pages. So I will finish this year and begin the next praising the only One Who is going on forever.
When our son, Jeff, was little he did not always like to attend Sunday School. One week he did the Sunday School lesson as they requested, pasting arms on a cartoon child who was to be praying. The activity showed a paper child and the children were given arms that attached at the elbow. The teacher explained to me, “Oh he tried and it was so cute!” Jeff pasted the arms raised in praise instead of hands folded. There are many references in the Word about lifting our hands to God. Some say this is the highest form of prayer. Certainly a sign of surrender to the Almighty. I thought Jeff got the lesson perfectly!
Writing in Always We Begin Again John McQuiston II says
The adoption of an attitude of thankfulness to the sublime mystery that brought us into being and preserves us is at once means and end. It’s worth is beyond measure.
Remember that we are always in the presence of the sacred, but that the sacred nature of life is only apparent to these who are open to it. We are a part of the infinite which is in this moment expressing itself through us and in every facet of daily life.
Always We Begin Again
McQuiston calls this tiny booklet a paraphrase of the Benedictine Way of Living, the Benedictine rule. I did not live by the Benedictine Rule of Life, but I do return to this booklet repeatedly to regain focus on the most important.
How do you intend to spend your life in 2024? Obviously, we first have to learn to write the new number for the year! Beyond the mundane do you have a plan? Might you plan to renew your relationship with “the sublime mystery that preserves us”?
I am not one to make resolutions, but I do pursue the Living God who calls me. I pray you will be listening to the same still, small voice in your soul and follow unabashedly! I will not be posting the remainder of the week. Blessings to each of you. Thank you for taking the time to read what I write. I hope the Holy One touches you through something I write about. May you be blessed with an increased awareness of the Holy Presence.
Our friend Dan Cooksey reminded us of this song in his blog. We first heard it when he played the Christmas special by Andrew Peterson while we visited the Cookseys last December.
You can listen o the entire album on YouTube.
From My Here Am I collection, I hope this will find you well prepared for His Advent.
Here am I, stuff of earth But by the Spirit’s power rebirth has brought me receptivity. Fill me with Yourself.
Molded by Your Holy Hand I wait before You Cupped and ready, cleansed, atoned waiting for Your radiant touch Virtue compelled to enfold Your own the vessel of Your making.
Here am I, stuff of earth yielded for Messiah’s birth be it unto me, O Lord, as in Your word and will.
The Great I AM dwells in my heart there to impart the power courage and propulsion His dream to be fulfilled
Certainly you have heard Sylvester say it like the clip below.
My mom’s succotash was baby lima beans and corn.
If you look up the meaning most sites say it is a minced oath. A what? Minced oath for suffering savior?
In the mid-1800s, during the Victorian era, there was a rejection of all profanity and so the common people developed a wide variety of malapropisms to avoid swearing on Holy names. Soon, one could hear Cripes and Crikey replace “Christ” and Dangnabit replace “G*d damn it” and Cheese ‘n’ Rice replace “Jesus Christ.” The phrase Suffering Succotash replaced “Suffering Savior.”
Today the latter phrase is known only as an expression of annoyance and surprise by animated cartoon characters such as Sylvester the Cat and Daffy Duck. Was the expression still in vogue when the Looney Tunes cartoons were made, or did the cartoons resurrect an expression that had already lapsed from the American lexicon?
Did they really mean Sylvester was using that in terms of the Suffering Savior I love? I certainly hope NOT!
Suffering well after the manor of those with chronic illness. Me and some friends understand chronic suffering. If you do not have a chronic illness, you probably do not understand what others go through. Yes, you can be empathetic, but understanding usually only comes with the actual experience. I told one friend when she received a chronic diagnosis that we are fortunate if there are 3 or 4 people we can talk to about the details, people we can trust. No cliches, no quick fix Scriptures, no blunt judgement. I cherish those people.
How to embrace the chronic? Some things I have learned include, I am not going to feel better in the morning. Just go with the flow or stagnation. Whichever occurs is current reality. Suffering is said to be when we try to change the current reality, ‘kicking against the goads.’ An ox goad is a wooden tool, approximately eight feet long, fitted with an iron spike or point at one end, which was used to spur oxen as they pulled a plow or cart. Kick against it like an ox and you are likely to get a wound.
About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
Acts 26:13-14 NIV
I understand the need to push back against darkness that wants to distract me from writing about Jesus and talking about Him and living for Him. With a chronic illness diagnosis in 1989 Pentecostals and charismatics said I should resist illness. Yet Jesus told me He would be with me in it. Whom should I believe? I go with Jesus. I pray for healing, but I rest in His Presence and care.
He does not make chronic easy. He does not take it away, but He does make it bearable. He does comfort me. Pain is part of life. Chronic illness can bring pain but some believe that suffering is optional. We avoid suffering by acceptance of what is – in contrast to – wishing things were different.
Jesus suffered. His relationships were disappointing. He suffered unbelief from others. He suffered from being bruised, mocked, beaten, crucified. He died exposed on a cross, feeling separated from the Father. He was buried in a cave. He knows what we feel and what we go through. He walks with us through each occasion. He came to inhabit those very times with us. He knows our misery.
Kicking against reality can create misery. Acceptance does not make the reality go away but it can ease our suffering in the midst. Immanuel, God with us, Eternal gift from the Father. When exasperated by yet another symptom or medication requirement I might say, “Sufferin’Succotash!” I never mean it to degrade what my Savior went through. I just get as exasperated as Sylvester trying to catch the Tweety Bird!
When I was first exploring contemplative prayer and Christian meditation, I was told to read works by John Main, a Benedictine monk and teacher. He was born in 1920 in London, England and died in 1982 in Montreal, Quebec.
I have found his writings inspirational and challenging. In the introduction to his “Essential Writings” he is quoted as saying that his essential teaching could be written on the back of a postage stamp. The intro goes on to state:
Because his is a spiritual teaching, indeed a mystical one, it cannot be adequately described in the way we would explain a philosophy or theology. It asks to be understood at a personal level, where thought and experience, mind and heart, converge.
John Main Essential Writings, Introduction by Laurence Freeman
Why should we care about all this? Perhaps John stated it best himself!
In contemplative prayer we seek to become the person we are called to be, not by thinking of God but by being with God
John Main
In a selection entitled Word and Silence he writes,
It is better to be silent and real that to talk and be unreal, wrote St. Ignatius of Antioch in the first century, and our contemporary situation must surely bear this out. Authority, conviction, personal verification, which are the indispensable qualities of the Christian witness, are not to be found in books, in discussion, or on cassettes {I would add or on podcasts}, but rather in an encounter with ourselves in the silence of our own spirit.
If modern people have lost their experience of spirit, pneuma, or essence, in which their own irreducible and absolute being consists, it is because they have lost their experience of and capacity for silence. There are few statements about spiritual reality that can claim a universal agreement. But this one has received the same formulation in almost all traditions, namely, that it is only in accepting silence that people can come to know their own spirit, and only in abandonment to an infinite depth of silence that they can be revealed to the source of their spirit in which multiplicity and division disappear. Modern people are often threatened by silence, what T. S. Eliot called ‘the growing terror of nothing to think about,” and everyone has to face this fear when they begin to meditate.
First, we must confront with some shame the chaotic din of a mind ravaged by so much exposure to trivia and distraction.
Word and Silence, John Main
I think it is no wonder that if we attend a candlelight service and sing Silent Night we are in awe and amazement. We need more silence and we need the Light of Christ, especially in this season that can so very chaotic. I pray you will allow yourself a period of silence this December. Time just to be with God, to listen, to learn about your heart and His.
As you give yourself as the gift that Jesus asks for this year, I pray you will spend some time in silence with Him. Be with Him. Listen, learn and experience His Presence. His light will illuminate your darkness and show you a bright path into 2024.
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 