Help...

Tuesday I did something that six months ago I could not have imagined, and for a variety of reasons I'm still trying to untangle, it was humbling and even embarrassing.

I borrowed a walker from my eighty-year-old friend - for me.










It's the morning I dread. I lie in bed - Louis at work - and I wonder how I am going to get up. I wrap the heating pad around my right hand and wrist or under my knees and linger a bit longer - soaking up the healing warmth.

But the longer I stay in the bed, the greater the challenge. I simply must get up, but as I try to stand, my ankles buckle in pain and my knees will neither bend nor straighten.

I struggle with every single step. Lord help me.










I clearly need help. But I am the helper - the giver of care - and asking for help does not come easy.

Tuesday morning I knew I could not be the helper my older friend Joyce needed. I could barely get dressed or brush my hair. I swallowed my pride and called a friend for help.










I asked Joyce if she might have a walker I could borrow, and she led me to her garage and a brand new walker - with tags still hanging from the handles - that for at least three years has been stored - unused.










I helped Joyce get a shower, and my friend Linda took Joyce's dog for a walk, changed the sheets, and later drove Joyce into town.

Linda told me she was dressed in riding shorts when I called her that morning. She'd planned to go bike riding with a neighbor, but the neighbor had just called to say they couldn't make it.

I wonder what I will do now, Linda thought - just as her phone rang again.

It was, of course, the call for help from me.

Out of my distress I called on the LORD;
the LORD answered me and set me free.
(Psalm 118:5 ESV)

I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
(Psalm 116:1-2 ESV)

Addendum: That was Tuesday. Wednesday morning I got out of bed much easier with the help of the walker and I called my rheumatologist. My current medication regime was obviously not working. Until I go for lab work and see him next month, he wants me to return to the higher doses of prednisone I was taking back in December. It's a mixed blessing. It means having to do all the hard work of coming off prednisone all over again, but the benefits far outweigh the pain and disability I have been experiencing. I'm confident that when I see the doctor next month, we will find a medication regime that will work, but for now, the prednisone is getting me back on my feet.

On this Good Friday, I have much for which to be grateful - beginning and ending at the cross and I will call on my Lord as long as I live.

Photos: Late Tuesday afternoon I pushed myself to wander through the pasture. I'm determined to learn how to use my new camera. The photos are from that rather painful wandering.

Holy Week::Palm Sunday...

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” ~ Matthew 21:9


HOSANNA, LOUD HOSANNA

Hosanna, loud hosanna,
the little children sang,
through pillared court and temple
the lovely anthem rang.
To Jesus, who had blessed them
close folded to his breast,
the children sang their praises,
the simplest and the best.

From Olivet they followed mid an exultant crowd,
the victor palm branch waving,
and chanting clear and loud.
The Lord of earth
and heaven rode on in lowly state,
nor scorned that little children
should on his bidding wait.

"Hosanna in the highest!"
that ancient song we sing,
for Christ is our Redeemer,
the Lord of heaven our King.
O may we ever praise him
with heart and life and voice,
and in his blissful presence
eternally rejoice!

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word "darkness" on the walls of his cell." C.S. Lewis

Photo: Brooke Fraser and Hillsong United(Encounter, Miami, August 2009 - a fantastic weekend with two of my favorite young ladies.)

Resurrection Day; Sixty::Seventeen

“Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection,

not in books alone,

but in every leaf in spring-time."

~ Martin Luther
Photo: Goldfinch in Sweetgum Tree, March 2008.

Sixty::Sixteen

   Silence
Photo: A foggy October morning on Lake Aurora, 2008

Sixty::Fifteen

"O death, where is your sting?"

Holy Week::Maundy Thursday; Sixty::Fourteen

Stormy sunrise over Atlantic Ocean, May 2006.

Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy, cast off that I might be brought in, trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend, surrendered to hell’s worst that I might attain heaven’s best, stripped that I might be clothed, wounded that I might be healed, athirst that I might drink, tormented that I might be comforted, made a shame that I might inherit glory, entered darkness that I might have eternal life.My Saviour wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes, groaned that I might have endless song, endured all pain that I might have unfading health, bore a thorned crown that I might have a glory-diadem, bowed his head that I might uplift mine, experienced reproach that I might receive welcome, closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness, expired that I might for ever live. The Valley of Vision “Love Lustres at Calvary"

Sixty::Thirteen

Holy Week posts from my blogroll/reader (in no particular order): Why We Call This Holy Week by Christina at Heavenly Springs

Holy Week: What Happened on Wednesday? by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds

What Your Starved Soul is Really Hungry For: on the road to Calvary by Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience

Sixty::Twelve

"In order to glimpse the glory of God where he hides himself in creation, we actually have to engage with creation." ~ Bill Walsh

Shades of spring...

A foggy sunrise... around the pond... in the trees... on the feeders... and under the trees... Holy Week posts from my blogroll/reader (in no particular order): Hosanna on a Monday: on the road to Calvary by Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience That's My King at Kevin DeYoung's DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed Holy Week: What Happened on Monday? by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds

Holy Week::Palm Sunday; Sixty::Ten

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” ~ Matthew 21:9

Holy Week: What Happened on Sunday (Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds)

More Holy Week from my blogroll* (in no particular order):

Jesus Messiah! by Christina at Heavenly Springs

Holy Week Geography and Harmony in Google Earth by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds

Photo: Brooke Fraser and Hillsong United(Encounter, Miami, August 2009 - a fantastic weekend with two of my favorite young ladies.)

Gripped by His love and full of thanksgiving...

Emily thinks Pollywog Creek reminds her of the movie "Snow White". It does appear that a ménagerie of animals are peacefully co-existing here. This morning we watched a black snake slither through the mulch of leaves under one of the sweet gum trees, while doves and fox and grey squirrels picked through the leaves and grass for seed that had fallen from the feeders.

Goldfinches, sparrows, and a green painted bunting ate leisurely at the feeders until they were startled by the playful antics of the squirrels as they chased each other up and down and around the trees. Red-bellied woodpeckers, bluejays, and cardinals took their turns at the feeders, while a mockingbird flew in to drink from the bird bath.

Crows cawed from the top of a pine tree in the pasture, and a neighbor's rooster crowed in the distance. Even the peacocks across the creek occasionally added their harsh cry to the dissonant chorus.

A drake and two female muscovy ducks have been visiting the pond, much to my husband's displeasure, and yesterday, a little green heron perched on a cypress knee while the ducks swam nearby. Late in the afternoon last week, a beautiful red and gray fox walked briskly along the edge of the creek. Just as he turned toward the pond, Emily frightened him away. At dusk, rabbits emerge from the thickets along the creek and squeeze through the fence to munch on the winter grass just outside the back door.

It's no secret that the backyard swing is my favorite place to perch in this "Snow White" set of ours. An Easter basket of good books, a cup of coffee, and delightfully cool weather has made it all the more perfect. John Stott's "The Cross of Christ" has been in my book basket for quite some time, but I've been reflecting at length on passages (like the one below) from its pages more this week than most.

"We can stand before (the cross) only with a bowed head and a broken spirit. And there we remain until the Lord Jesus speaks to our hearts his word of pardon and acceptance, and we, gripped by his love and full of thanksgiving, go out into the world to live our lives in his service." (emphasis mine)

Before I grab my book basket and get comfy on the swing outside, I've been using the online ESV Study Bible to study the Scriptures our church provided for us to read every day this week. I need about an hour every morning to listen, read and study these passages online. I'm so amazed at what I am still learning from familiar passages I have read many times over the years. I'm "gripped by his love and full of thanksgiving."