The other thing I've been up to.

I'm sorry that I didn't post an inspirational blog on Sunday. My daughter recently adopted a puppy, and I ended up puppy-sitting him this past weekend. I had been thinking about getting a pup of my own, but after this little furball took over my house for two days, I have definitetly decided against adding another four-legged friend. I'm back up to three grand-puppies and that's enough. 

The two pictures above are from when my daughter first got him. I can't believe how much he's grown in just a few weeks. Below is at my house. 

 He's like a little bear cub. 

where-was-I-wednesday - High Cliff State Park

As you may recall, last weekend was the state conference of the Wisconsin Society of Medical Assistants in Neenah, Wisconsin. I was president of the organization twenty years ago and every year during the conference, there is a luncheon for all past presidents.

When I walked in the room at 11:31 (it started at 11:30), they were so relieved to see me. They were sure something had happened to me and one of them was just about to call me. One minute! I was one minute late. But at least I made an entrance.

After all that eating, joviality, and catching up on our escapades of the past year, I jumped in my car to go for a ride.

Oh, but wait, one thing I forgot to tell you. I was about three miles from my house when I remembered I had left my camera home. Yes, I know the rest of the world takes pictures with their phones, but that just still feels reprehensible to me. A phone is for communicating – calling people, but mostly texting these days.  

Anyway, imagine how late I would have been if I had gone back for my camera! My phone would have to do. Argh.

Also, the sun was shining (when I left the hotel anyway) and the temperature wasn’t too bad (upper forties), but the wind. Oh, my gosh.

So I drove to High Cliff State Park to go hiking and take lots of pictures. Well, taking pictures with my phone, as you already guessed, does not do it for me. And with the wind, my hikes were all cut short.

I made up for all of that by buying a pair of shoes at Kohls on my way back through Neenah, then spent the night at a friend’s house. We caught up on things and discussed our trip to Cambodia this coming September! Will NOT forget my camera then!

 

Still windy! I’ll have to come back again someday, with my camera and nicer weather.

Take Down the Ten Commandments?

 

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. (James 1:19, New Living Translation)

In January this year, I posted various Bible verses that I intended to memorize. I think I did pretty well on that goal.

Then, last week, I started adding more passages. Yikes! My brain may be full, but I am going to plow through and try some more. And I came upon this verse.

But here’s what I think. I know certain groups want to remove the Ten Commandments from all public areas, to which I shake my head in disgust. But how about we at least replace them with this verse? How can anyone be offended by this?

My dear brothers and sisters, always be willing to listen and slow to speak. Do not become angry easily. (James 1:19, New Century Version)

Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. (James 1:19, The Message)

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. (James 1:19, New King James Version)

Whatever version works for you.

Oh, and then live by it. And maybe realize there are more commands in the Bible which would make our world a better place if we all lived by then. 

The Narrow Gate

     “Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14, Good News Translation)

These verses remind me of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.” You know the one. It ends with “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Both of these, however, make me think of a fork in the road. There’s a road to the left and a road to the right, and which one should you take?

Hubby left a random fork on our washing machine last night. When I picked it up, it dawned on me. A fork usually has four tines, which to my mind means four choices. I know an eating utensil is a totally different fork than the one in the road, but bear with me.  

People who take the far-left fork blatantly commit all the sins with no remorse. They lie, cheat, steal, have affairs, and maybe even kill. They don’t know Jesus at all and they use His name in vain.  

People who choose the next road over try to be good people. They heard about the Ten Commandments and thought it would make sense to at least keep the biggies, like killing and stealing. They provide for their families and try to help out people in need. But no matter how good they are, they don’t know Jesus as their Savior.  

The tine second from the right is the one people pick who go to church, try to keep all of the Commandments, and usually ask for forgiveness. They say their prayers and help out strangers. The problem is everything they are doing is just stuff they do. They say their prayers to some invisible God because they have been told to. They haven’t asked Jesus into their lives; they don’t have a relationship with Him.

Lastly, the path to the far right, the road less taken, the one through the narrow gate. The one which the fewest people choose, but those are the people who try to keep the Commandments, who ask for forgiveness, who have asked Jesus Christ into their lives, and have a personal relationship with Him.

Which path have you chosen? 

Green Bay in a Day

Last week, we had planned on flying to Seattle to visit Hubby’s nephew, as well as see as much as we could in the four short days we would be there. Unfortunately, and as our spring break weather always guarantees, our flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was cancelled due to snow. We banged our heads together trying to salvage the trip, but decided it just wasn’t meant to be. (We had cancelled the same trip last June because my back was just too bad at the time, not that my pain is 100% cleared up even now.)

I suggested a few places we could drive to for just a day or two so that the week wasn’t a total waste. We decided to head to Green Bay on Tuesday just for overnight. 

As you can see, the stupid late March snow was still in our yard when we left. And if anyone from the Green Bay area is reading this today, I’m sorry that your winter storm was worse than ours this week. Stupid Wisconsin Fake-Spring. 

First thing Wednesday morning we visited the National Railroad Museum. We’d both been there a few times before, but it’s still always fun. Doesn’t everyone have a twinge of love for old train cars, the romance of the rails? 

The Merci Train was a train of 49 French railroad box cars filled with tens of thousands of gifts of gratitude from at least that many individual French citizens. They were showing their appreciation for the more than 700 American box cars of relief goods sent to them by (primarily) individual Americans in 1948. The Merci Train arrived in New York harbor on February 2nd, 1949 and each of the 48 American states at that time received one of the gift laden box cars. The 49th box car was shared by Washington D.C. and the Territory of Hawaii. (From the Merci Train website) 

Some fancy cars. Some not so much. Pretty sure this bed would give me more pain than I’ve had in a few months. 

Our next and final stop was at the Packer Hall of Fame. 

I took an unbelievably few pictures there. I was stupidly emotional the whole time we were walking around. 

I’ve become very jaded towards professional sports in the last couple of years. How can anyone justify the huge salaries any of them are being paid? And how can they make some of the most bone-headed plays? It just all seems so staged sometimes, like they are getting those big paychecks to keep their mouths shut when they have to throw a game.

But then there was that one shining season when the Packers won the Super Bowl after a very long drought. When Brett Favre was just a kid with an amazing arm and the spirit of a little boy. When I knew the names and positions of all the players and Reggie White was the Minister of Defense.

I have two secrets – one I won’t share here or anywhere else EVER! The other is my birthday, I’m just weird about it. But I’ll let that secret out.

Because Reggie White was born on the exact same day as I was. And so sadly, he was called home to be with Jesus when he was only 43. I really haven’t got anything else to say about that. If you don’t know anything about the man, you can look it up on-line, but I admired him and know he would never throw a game. 

There were lots of displays of him at the Packer Hall of Fame, but I couldn’t get close enough to them to take any pictures. The other people around me would think I was nuts when I started blubbering.

Now you know a little bit more about me. 

Do you?

 

Friday we were left with words such as Disappointment, Dismay, and Desolation.  

But it’s Sunday morning. Mary Magdalene and others go to the tomb of Jesus, filled with Dread. They believe their Lord and Savior is Dead and His cold body will be lying there. Instead, the tomb is empty, Jesus’ body is gone. They are Desperate to find it, to find Him.

And He finds them and their Despair is quickly turned to Delight. Jesus is their Deliverer.

A week later, however, we encounter one last D word. Doubt. You know the story. Thomas, one of the disciples, wasn’t with the others when Jesus appeared to them. He doubted what they told him. He wouldn’t believe until he put his fingers where the nails had pierced Jesus’ hands.

When Jesus appeared to him, Thomas did just that – put his fingers in the holes in Jesus’ hands and in His side. Then he no longer doubted.

What about you? Without having seen Jesus yourself, do you believe in the resurrection? Do you have faith that Jesus Christ came to save you from your sins?

I pray you Do. May God bless you, Chris

So Many D's

This past Sunday night, Hubby and I were supposed to fly out of Minneapolis, heading to Seattle to visit his nephew for the week. I’d been watching the forecast the whole previous week, and it kept saying that snow was heading our way. But Minneapolis, Minnesota? Where a foot of snow is the same as an inch of snow anywhere else? Surely the eight to ten inches that was forecasted wouldn’t affect our flight.

8:30 Sunday morning, twelve hours before our scheduled takeoff, I got a text from the airline saying our flight was cancelled. What? Twelve hours away! Anything could happen. Come on, people, give it a chance.

Hubby and I reviewed all our options, tried to come up with every possible scenario to save this trip, but it just didn’t feel like it was going to happen.

We were so disappointed. But then my pain jumped up again Monday morning and kept me miserable for three days, so maybe the trip would have been a wash anyway.

Disappointment. But nothing compared to what Jesus’ followers felt on the first Good Friday. Dismay, despair, desolation, dread. So many D’s.

And what about Jesus? Death. An excruciatingly painful death on a cross.

But Sunday is coming.

Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled

 

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give peace to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard Me say that I am going away. But I am coming back to you. If you love Me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father. The Father is greater than I. I have told you this before it happens. Then when it does happen, you will believe.

            “I will not talk much more with you. The leader of this world is coming. He has no power over Me. I am doing what the Father told Me to do so the world may know I love the Father. Come, let us be on our way”. (John 14:27-30, New Life Version)

There is nothing I can – or should – add to that. Today is Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week. Good Friday is only days away. But remember, Easter Sunday is coming. God bless you.

I Want to Live

It will be a year on the first since I threw out my back, and this horrible cycle of pain began. For the last few weeks, I had been doing pretty good; then, I was afflicted with vertigo, followed a few days later by a cold. But still, the pain wasn’t bad at all, except for my neck, which I couldn’t turn without getting dizzy.

Then, I woke up Monday morning with another spin of the Wheel of Misfortune. Right pelvic pain to the point where I couldn’t walk. Over the last eleven months, I’ve had this before, and it usually eases up after two days.

So I woke up yesterday morning, and the right side wasn’t too bad, but the left side was horrible. That has kind of been the trend. Not only is my left pelvis still hurting this morning, but today my left neck is stiff and killing me. 

I’ve dealt with all of this as best I can. Some days, like yesterday, I hit the wall and wasn’t very nice to my husband or son, as if any of this was their fault. But overall, I’ve accepted that this is life.

There was a time, however, last fall when I couldn’t cope anymore. God wasn’t answering my prayers to take away the pain, and He wasn’t answering my prayers when I kept asking why this was happening to me. A depression descended on me, a black cloud. I didn’t care if I got up in the morning; I found nothing to make me laugh. My prayers become times of begging God to take me home to heaven.

I scared myself and the friends and family members who I told about my feelings. I started thinking of all the ways I could kill myself, which looked like an accident.

Then, one afternoon in November, I got crushing chest pain while taking my walk. Instead of going straight to the ER (do not pass go, do not collect $200), since the pain went away by the time I got in the house, I called and made a doctor’s appointment for the following week.

But in my head, I thought, ah-ha, finally, God has listened to my prayers, and He’s going to take me.

I made it to the appointment and had a bunch of tests that day, which all came back pretty okay. But the doctor wanted to run one more test, which took a month to get in for. 

Still, I thought, this is okay. I’ll die from a heart attack before then.

The day of the appointment came, and I was still alive. I made it through the test, and a few days later, my doctor gave me the results. He tried to cover up his concern, but I could tell he didn’t like something about the results. He scheduled me to see cardiology.

I went home and looked up everything I could find online about the number he didn’t like, that one little blimp on an otherwise normal test. What I saw stopped me in my tracks. The words “increased risk for sudden cardiac death” jumped off my computer screen.

I looked out my window and whispered, “But, God, I don’t want to die.” Then I wanted to shout, “I don’t want to die.”

I was like George Bailey near the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” hanging on to the bridge railing, his mouth bleeding, repeating, “I want to live. I want to live again.”

When I saw the cardiologist, she said that the one abnormal number on that test usually didn’t mean anything, but she’d schedule one last test just to be sure. That one came back totally normal, and I was cleared; there was nothing wrong with my heart.

And my mind? That is good again, too. Coz I don’t wanna die. No matter how much pain I’m in or what new ailment assails me, I want to live.

Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39, New Century Version)

 

Everything

Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”

            Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

Can you imagine living in that moment? Being one of the chosen twelve disciples? Being one of the men whom Jesus entrusted with EVERYTHING about His life? And trying to understand it all.

We don’t realize how lucky we are. We have the entire Bible to study and learn from. We aren’t living in the moment, two thousand years ago, being told by our Teacher that bad things were going to happen to Him and then watching this Friend die on that cross.

But we still don't know everything. All we have is the indescribable joy of knowing that He rose from the grave on the third day. 

The Tree of Knowledge

When bad things happen, everyone asks – why would God do this? Why would a loving Father allow believers to suffer? Why would He let innocent little children die painful deaths?

People search all over the Bible for answers to those questions, and they sometimes find good ones. I’ve asked God all those things – and more – as I struggled with pain and a list of other maladies over the past eleven months. And I’ve found some answers in the Bible, too. But way back in the second chapter of the first book of the Bible is the answer which works best for me.

Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. He told him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.” (Genesis 2:15-17, Good News Translation)

Maybe we just aren’t supposed to know why things happen. Maybe if we knew the answers to those questions, we wouldn’t be able to handle it. Maybe we just need to trust God that He knows what He’s doing. He has knowledge and that needs to be enough for us.  

Who Is the Holy Spirit?

“If you love me, obey me; and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Comforter, and he will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive him, for it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you do, for he lives with you now and some day shall be in you. 

"No, I will not abandon you or leave you as orphans in the storm—I will come to you. In just a little while I will be gone from the world, but I will still be present with you. For I will live again—and you will too. When I come back to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. The one who obeys me is the one who loves me; and because he loves me, my Father will love him; and I will too, and I will reveal myself to him.” (John 14:15-21, Living Bible)

Once again, the apostle John packs a lot into just a few verses. So, I’m going to focus on just one thing here – the Comforter. Other versions of the Bible refer to this as the Advocate, Encourager, Helper, or Counselor. But Jesus sets us straight when He says that this is the Holy Spirit.

When we think of God the Father, we can picture a grandfatherly man or another older person with a kind yet strong demeanor. Everyone has pretty much the same picture in their head when they think of God the Son – you know, that painting of Jesus with shoulder-length brown hair, a neatly trimmed beard, eyes looking heavenward, wearing a white tunic. (I’d share that picture here, but I want you to see it in your own mind.)

But what comes to mind when we say God the Holy Spirit. He’s a spirit, right? So maybe He doesn’t have human form and maybe that’s why He’s the hardest element of the triune God for us to understand.

But maybe He should be the easiest. Read what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit – He is with you forever and will never leave you, He lives with you now and later will be in you. And remember, He is also your Comforter, Advocate, Encourager, Helper, and Counselor.

And also, usually portrayed as a dove, and not the goofy bird above.  

Another spin of the wheel, or of the merry-go-round

The only amusement ride I've ever liked. 

I’m sorry that I didn’t write a blog on Wednesday, but the Wheel of Misfortune spun a new one on me. This time it wasn’t pain, it was vertigo. Room-spinning, floor-tilting, nauseating vertigo.

I had one ER trip, one doctor’s office visit, and one therapy appointment, in three days. If any of you have ever had this – medical term usually being Benign Positional Vertigo, or BPV – you know it can be debilitating. We’ve all been dizzy or off-balance, but this is like having had too much to drink and then stepping on an amusement park ride, but there’s nothing amusing about it.

The cure is simple – something called the Epley Maneuver. (I know BPV already sounds a little sketchy and then you do some kind of maneuver? Creepy.) (Just kidding.) 

Working in health care, I’ve heard of this before, but silly me, I was under the assumption that this little maneuver would cure the vertigo after one hit. Nothing is ever that easy, right? And certainly not that easy in my life.

So, I do this thing – turn my head and lay down and let the dizziness pass – twice a day and it should get better in a few weeks. It’s all from crystals in our ears getting into the wrong canal and this move makes them shift back to where they belong. I still find it hard to believe that this is actual traditional Western medicine.

Anyway, wish me luck, once again.

Will Jesus Answer our Prayer?

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! (John 14:12-14)

What a great thought! Believe, do as Jesus has done, and then ask for anything; it is as good as done!

So, then, how come all our prayers don’t get answered? How come we can pray night after night for a relative to be cured of cancer? Or for a loved one to come to know the Lord? Or for safety during a tornado or other disastrous event? And those prayers don’t seem to be answered?

A couple of things are happening in the short final sentence in the above Bible verse.  First, “Ask for anything in my name.” Did you ask in Jesus’ name? Sure, you said Christ’s name in your prayer, but did you mean it? Did you feel it?

And do you know what it really means to pray that way? It means you have turned your request over to Jesus, and it’s now his decision how he “will do it.”God isn’t a puppet on a string to do our every bidding. We must trust that both God the Father and God the Son have our best interests and will take care of us and our prayers.

Going over the Falls

I shared this story before, and I’m not sure why I felt compelled to share it now. Perhaps I just needed to recall a time when I was young and daring and able to climb around and do crazy stuff. 

In March of 1993, just thirty-one years ago, my sister Pat and I decided to start photographing all the waterfalls in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I don’t remember how many we got, but I know we didn’t come close. 

Our first one was O Kun De Kun Falls. This was the first time we had been there, but it quickly became one of my all-time favorite waterfalls. 

Even though the sign at the start of the trail read 1.3 miles, we didn’t think that was very far. 

As we tramped through the woods, the cool July morning turned into a warm early afternoon, and before long, we were sweating in our jeans. 

Finally, we burst out of the pine trees at the river’s edge, just at the top of the waterfall. A series of several short falls ended in a plummet to the Baltimore River, some 20 feet below.

“Hey, there’s nobody around,” I told Pat as I stripped off my pants.

“Look,” Pat pointed, after she had laid down her freshly-shed jeans. “A ledge goes all the way behind the falls.”

“That would make such a cool picture,” I replied. 

“I’ll hand you your camera after you crawl back there.” I had a flashback to a similar conversation many years before. Dad had brought home this huge safe, and Pat bet I could fit in it. Why did I always do the dumb stuff she suggested?

So, of course, I crawled behind the waterfall on a slimy eight-inch sheet of rock. Just as I was in position and about to reach for my camera, my foot slipped. I have no idea how I hung on, but somehow, I kept myself from going over the falls. The picture I snapped from behind the falls wasn’t really worth it. And the shot Pat took of me? This is the first time it has seen the light of day. 

Maybe that’s why I decided to share this story again, along with the picture. I’m getting too old and have been through so much over the last year. There’s nothing left to embarrass me.  

Three in One

       Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need.”

       Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do. (John 14:8-11)

Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend that God is three persons in one – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What did Jesus mean when he said that his Father was in him and he was in his Father? It didn’t make sense to the disciples who lived with Jesus; how can it possibly make sense to us?

I was visiting Holy Hill Basilica in Southeast Wisconsin many years ago, when I overheard a little girl asking her mother what it meant that God was three people in one.

The mother replied, “Well, your daddy is one person as your daddy, another person as my husband, and a third person as the manager of where he works.”

The little girl bought her mom’s story, but I think we all know that the Triune God is way more than that. But as Jesus said, “Just believe.”

What Was Lost

 Two weeks ago, when I was taking my walk, I found a cell phone on the ground on the side of our road. I picked it up and quickly discovered that it was locked. I looked up and down the road as if the person who dropped it would still be in sight. I debated a moment, then decided I needed to take it home, get it out of the elements, and try to track down its owner.

I called or texted the people I know who live along our road, but it didn’t belong to any of them. I called the local radio station and asked that they put it on the air. Later that day, when I hadn’t gotten any response, I posted it on my Facebook page.

I thought about turning it in to the sheriff’s department but figured they must have better things to do. Then I remembered what a crime-ridden county I live in – not.

Anyway, I left the phone on the dining room table and went to bed that night, hoping it would somehow find its way home.

Hubby and I never set an alarm to wake us up in the morning. We both have pretty accurate clocks in our heads. If I have to be up at a specific time, I tell myself to wake myself up at that time, and it works 95% of the time. My one and only superpower.

And on the off chance my brain didn’t listen to me the night before, we have an annoying cat who wakes us up crying and walking over our heads around four every morning, 365 days of the year.

For some reason, for the first time in her three years of life, she didn’t wake us up the next day. Instead, at five a.m., we were awakened by music coming from the dining room. The alarm on the lost cellphone was going off!

What were the chances the one morning that our brains fail us, the cat sleeps in, and Hubby needs to get up at five for work, that someone else’s alarm wakes us up?

The following morning, I still had the phone, and its alarm still went off at five a.m. But we had already gotten ourselves out of bed. I did, however, feel bad that somewhere out there was someone who might have slept in two mornings in a row. 

I called our sheriff’s department later that morning. I told them about the phone and that I could drop it off in their lost and found that afternoon. Instead, a friendly officer came by our house ten minutes later and picked it up. He seemed confident that they could find its home, even though the battery was dead by then.

“Or take another illustration: A woman has ten valuable silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and look in every corner of the house and sweep every nook and cranny until she finds it? And then won’t she call in her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her? In the same way there is joy in the presence of the angels of God when one sinner repents.” (Luke 15:8-10, Living Bible)

I hope whoever lost that cell phone had it returned, and he or she was able to rejoice.

My Father's House

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.”

“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

In 1993, the Christian rock band Audio Adrenaline released the song "Big House". Some of the lyrics are "Come and go with me, To my Father's house. It's a big, big house, With lots and lots a room." 

In fact, God's house – the one in heaven and not here on earth today – is more than big enough for everyone alive now or who has ever been alive. And He wants everyone to live in His house one day. 

Don't miss out on that! God offers us a fantastic invitation, and you'll want to live there with all the other believers.  

And as far as the answer to Thomas's question, I answered that last week, so you'll have to go back to last Sunday. But hopefully, you already know the answer. 

(I was trying to find the official music video of "Big House" to share with you, but didn't have much luck. You'll have to do your own internet search for it; the song has an upbeat sound which will get stuck in your head, and the words are easy to remember.)

Two Holidays in One

   Everyone knows it’s Valentine’s Day today, and I think most of you know it’s Ash Wednesday as well. 

We begin the observance of Lent today. After the Valentine’s roses are wilted and the candy is eaten, we still have the remaining weeks until Easter to solemnly remember what else this time of year is for. 

When I was growing up, most of my friends were Catholic, and so they were expected to give something up for Lent – usually candy or swearing (not that any of us swore back then). Sometimes, this Lutheran friend would go along and give up something, too. And over the years, I’ve often continued that tradition. 

This year is different. Back on November 28, when I saw the naturopathic doctor, and she prescribed a strict anti-inflammatory diet, I immediately gave up gluten, all processed sugar, almost all dairy, fried foods, fast foods, my morning honey-nut Cheerios, my nightly bowl of ice cream, my mid-afternoon candy bar, and so much more.

This diet has not eradicated my chronic pain, but most days, I feel a lot better than I had in the months prior to starting it. And once Easter has come and gone, I won’t be returning to any of those foods. I think this may need to be a lifelong diet change. 

I think that’s how the spiritual side of Lent should be. Why should anyone make any sacrifices during Lent? Because Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us. Though nothing we do or don’t do can ever compare to that, I think any little loss we choose to experience could be a good thing. And it should be for the entire year and not just the six weeks of Lent.