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. 

The Way, the Truth, the Life

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve tried to commit these Bible verses to memory – Proverbs 19:21, Romans 12:12, and Matthew 11:28. They are in my head for now, but I think I will have to keep refreshing that old mind of mine.

Here’s another verse many of us are familiar with:

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” (John 14:6-7, New Living Translation)

I included verse 7, not to memorize, but because I read through this entire chapter of John 14 and thought it contained some good stuff. Okay. I know – the entire Bible contains lots of good stuff. But this Wednesday we begin Lent and every Sunday in Lent, I’ve tried to write a series of blog posts around one theme. This year it will be this chapter from the book of John.   

Wheel of Misfortune

   In my April 13 blog post of last year, I mentioned, in passing, that I had "tweaked my back and really threw it out of place a few days later." I'd been in a lot of pain and had mostly been lying around for two weeks. 

Who knew? Who could have imagined? Here I am ten months later, still lying around more than I would like, with lists of things I wanted to accomplish these past ten months. Never in a million years have I thought that those simple missteps from the end of March and the first of April would throw my entire life into a tailspin. 

I've tried to downplay how miserable I've been. I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me, even though I appreciate the prayers many of you have been saying. 

But this is what it's been like. 

On my worst days – many during the summer – I couldn't get out of bed without help from Hubby. I walked with a cane and had to have rails around the toilet so I could get up and down. I had several episodes of incontinence because I couldn't limp there in time. I was in the ER twice. I was on multiple rounds of prednisone and took lots of muscle relaxers but few Vicodin because they didn't even help the pain. 

I spent many days on the couch on the heating pad. I watched more TV than I read books because I could barely hold a book (or my Kindle) in my hands because of the pain. 

The medical field, where I worked for 37 years, where I thought I was making a difference in people's lives, sorely let me down. I don't want to go down that road. It is what it is. But to anyone in my boat – you are your own healthcare provider; no one else will fix what ails you; it's up to you to cure yourself. 

And I'm trying so diligently to do that. I've had so many days and weeks where it was easier to lay around and feel sorry for myself, but I've been fighting since December to get better, to get back my strength and stamina, to get rid of this pain that pops up in a different spot every morning. 

Every night, when I've finally gotten comfortable in bed and can fall asleep, the wheel of misfortune is spun. When I wake up in the morning and first move, I find out quickly where the wheel landed. One day on my right shoulder, the next my left hip, then both wrists. Even my clavicles have a spot on that wheel. By the way, there's no trip to Jamaica on my wheel.

And what is all this pain, stiffness, achiness, shortness of breath and misery? Is it Fibromyalgia, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Lyme's Disease (though that blood test was negative in September), Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, or some weird Cancer, or some bizarre disease I picked up in Africa last time I was there?

Don't know. I am seeing a rheumatologist in June (the soonest I could get in), but I'm not counting on him to know any more than the rest of the providers I've seen. 

But don't despair; as I've already written, don't feel sorry for me. Most days, I'd say I'm 50% better than I was six months ago. Taking Tylenol and Ibuprofen around the clock helps a lot, even though I hate doing that to my system. The anti-inflammatory – gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, processed-food-free, fried-food-free, anti-anything-I-crave – diet seems to be helping. Everything I've read says to keep as active as possible, and walking does ease the pain and boosts my spirits. 

That's enough rambling. I've been awake since two am, and it's five now. I should either go back to bed or start making breakfast – fruit, granola, and coconut milk. 

Hope your day goes well and 2024 brings you all you've wished for. And me? I still have my eye on a trip to Cambodia in September. We'll see.

1 John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, New International Version)

I think every believer has heard that verse, and most of us have it memorized. So, it would be cheating to add it to my list of verses to memorize. But I mention it because of the similarity to today’s verse. 

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:16, New International Version)

It’s crazy to me how the first passage is just John 3:16 and the second one is from 1st John 3:16. Is that a coincidence? I don’t think God makes coincidences and I think every word which the writers of the Bible were inspired to write is exactly where it is meant to be in the Bible. To me, it’s more proof of who God is.

And I don’t think God means that we have to sacrifice our own lives for others. Jesus already did that. But I do think that we need to make sacrifices in our lives – give up that expensive morning coffee from Starbucks and donate that money to the homeless shelter, buy a few extra non-perishables when you’re grocery shopping and drop them off at the food pantry, just even get out of your comfort zone and share the word of Jesus with someone who is struggling.  

A Minor Inconvenience

 A couple of weeks ago, when we still had snow on the ground, I was expecting a package. Our mail hadn’t been coming until 5 pm or later, so I walked down to check the mailbox just as it was getting dark. 

When I reached the end of our long driveway, a car was coming from the west. I sighed and waited for it to pass before crossing the road. Then, I walked across the road and looked in the mailbox. Empty. So, I sighed again. 

But just then, a car came around the corner to the east, and I recognized our mail lady’s vehicle. 

She pulled up, handed me our mail (but no package), and said, “That was good timing.” 

Good timing, only because that other car drove by; otherwise, I would have been almost back up to the house. 

The point is you never know when a minor inconvenience will work in your favor. So don’t complain when things don’t go as smoothly as you had wanted. They will go smoothly when they are supposed to. 

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:28, New Living Translation)