Rehab, the Story Continues: Santa is There

John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

Three-and-a-half days! I made it. I made it to the weekend. But getting there was not without its many hurdles. This story is not all about ‘The Nursing Home’ ordeal, or the staff, this is about my journey, a fifty-two-year-old woman with stage four breast cancer, lymphedema of the left arm, radiation treatment to my bones and recovery of major surgery of my broken femur. Take for instance my Oral Chemo, it was running out, I did not have the wits about me to know how to reorder so I had to leave it up to my husband to take care of matters. The drugs I was on were pretty strong and keeping my mind busy and pretty much in a fog.

He called the Dr.s office, the nurse said she’d order it, no problem, he called back and Fay said it would be delivered Friday but needs a signature. Uh oh, hubby would have to miss work AGAIN, and miss seeing me all day to wait for meds! Not a happy gal but it’s okay, I’m tough and getting tougher by the day! Needless to say by three o’clock when the meds had not arrived hubby came to the hospital to visit me, even if it was only for two hours. He can’t drive at night, so we watched the sun (or lack thereof) very closely! A different story, the meds never arrived.

When Friday came I was happy to have made it to this day alive, although I had never wanted to give up more than I did this week. A loneliness had settled in, hubby knew it, and no amount of cuteness from Ray, or compassion from the staff could move me. It was a tough week on my spirit and soul. This was also the last day of radiation to my arm, and my son stepped up and said he could go to the CC with me. The weekend, I’d get a break, right? 

Then there was the day earlier in the week that they had to take my clothes to put name tags on them, even though we told them WE would wash them, they needed to be tagged. (I didn’t hand everything over but I stupidly gave them lounge pants, two flannels, brand new socks, and a pair of underwear. All were returned by Friday except my underwear and socks. When Kay, my occupational therapist heard this she set out on a search of my missing panties. She returned to my room waving them in her hand and said, “Hey, no wonder they wanted to keep them, they’re cute!” We both laughed but I through my tears. She hugged me!

Then there was Santa. Thursday had been a day of sunshine and warmth and I had even had a chance to open the window. Ray didn’t like the window opened because it gave her a chill. She was on the other side of the curtain between our beds and didn’t know it was open. The warmth, the sun, it was all I had to cling to. Yes, people, before you tell me to cling to God, please know, HE is the only thing that kept my breath in my lungs, He is first and foremost, but the sunshine and the warmth were for me on this day. 

Coming back from my radiation treatment that day found me in the sunshine. On the side of the entry to the hospital was a little area with a table and four chairs, lining a brick path were rocks, rocks of all shapes and sizes. Hubby and I followed the path, to the chairs and table and we sat in the sun, I in my wheelchair of course. We watched as nurses changed shift and a nurse had brought a resident outside to feel the warmth of the day. The table was back a little ways from the entry so hubby and I enjoyed the table and sunshine. I enjoyed the one monarch butterfly that landed on a rock not ten feet from me and my chair. Thank you, Jesus, I whispered out loud, as a tear trickled from my eye. 

Then he appeared, an older man hunched over his walker. He was taking tiny steps as he scooted to the path. An obvious Husker fan dressed from head to toe in his puffy red Husker slippers, his red husker lounge pants filled with the Husker team logo, all topped off with his white t-shirt with a big N for Nebraska, trimmed in red on sleeves and neck. His full white moustache and beard were reminiscent of Santa Claus. Steven softly sang… ‘here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus lane...’. I smiled.

Santa stopped at the rocks and just stood there looking down at them. One minute, five minutes passed and he moved, inching closer to where Steven and I were sitting. Again, Santa paused to stare at the rocks. He was within earshot of me now, I said, “Do you like the rocks as much as I do?” I myself was eyeing one shaped like a heart. Yeah, I draw to me these kinds of people. 

He looked up at me, then back to the rocks before he answered, “Yeah.” He began inching closer to me again, and stopped, mesmerized by the rocks. He began talking without looking up from the rocks, “They’re beautiful. Back in my shop, I take CLR to clean them. It brings out their beauty, then I polyurethane them. Yup.” He began to turn around and looked at the other side of the path lined with rocks.

As he slowly turned, he made his way right to the edge of the path. I thought he was turning to go back in the home but no, he paused to look at this side of the path, too, before heading inside. Staring at the rocks he whispered, 

“Y’know, it’s like looking at a million mountains,”  he went on, “Y’know how the rocks are made don’t ya? The rain,” he paused a moment, “the rain cuts them out of the mountains and they all wash downstream, getting cleaned up through the river until we gather them and see them for their beauty.”

By this time I had tears in my eyes and Steven and I were both looking at each other in wonderment. I knew there was a message in there for me but I couldn’t see it through my tears. Santa looked at me and smiled raised a finger to tap his nose and he proceeded to slowly walk back to the door, with one last quick pause to gaze at the rocks, he went inside.

I told Steven that it was now time for me to go back inside too, I got what I came for, a message. I picked up a rock, and we went inside the home, to my room. It didn’t seem so small anymore.

The moral of the story to me is: We are all refined by God made perfect in His image as we go through the trials and suffering of being washed downstream until we’re seen in our perfection before the Lord.

Isa. 48:10 “Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”

Change or Stay The Same

Colossians 2:6-7 KJV “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

Change or Stay the Same

As a child, our parents would issue an ultimatum to us when we did something bad. Change or do the same thing over and reap the repercussions. More times than not we chose not to change and of course, we reaped the repercussions and received a spanking or another form of punishment. Punishment because we chose not to change.

As an adult, while I don’t have my mother over my head telling me not to do something, I do have a Father inwardly pressing me to change or stay the same. While I have a tendency to come down hard on doctor’s the one thing I agree with them on is when they utter the words that you can change your diet, food intake, alcohol consumption, etc. or stay the same and suffer the consequences.

This is where the whole pharma/drug epidemic gained traction. They were banking on people not changing and staying the same, therefore NEEDING the drugs they offered to pacify their problem illness. The Big Pharma never sought a cure, they made more money keeping people drugged up. There is no money in non-sick people.

I call this era in history the Techno Era, it is the era where technology has soared to new heights. We’re not as advanced as the sci-fi shows like Star Trek, but we’re not too far behind. In all of the sci-fi shows I’ve watched about the future, I never see heads bowed into submission, not to God, but to a techno gadget that holds their attention. The world has become addicted as much to drugs and food as they have to their gadgets of the new era.

Change or stay the same, some will argue that change is necessary for growth and advancement and they embrace the changes of the techno era, but does this mean they’ll change their diets to save their own lives? More times than not, people would rather accept a new drug for their heart or a new phone for their hand than to change the food that goes into their mouth. And as a result, society is suffering the repercussions.

While I’m not 100% against the techno era, only because of this current illness I’m faced with. Had this disease attacked me just fourteen years ago before I received my very first computer, I’m sure there would have been a totally different outcome because I would have succumbed to the doctors and their fear tactics not ever known there was something different out there that I could utilize to heal. Because God forbid, should a doctor be trained to tell you to change or stay the same. Some doctors will tell you to change or expect your health to diminish, but do people change? Not on their life!

Life expectancy is getting shorter and shorter with each passing year because of the toxic world we are giving our children. More and more children will be affected by the EMF (electromagnetic field) of their tablet and phone use as well as the fifty vaccinations they receive by the time they’re five, and the chemically treated food that we give them to eat every day of their lives. No wonder the nation is so sick.

I’ll be tossed the argument that you need to know how the balance of these techno gadgets can have benefits. I agree, but that is assuming people are willing to change rather than stay the same, right? It’s pretty clear that people are NOT willing to change. I understand balance, I understand change, I also understand repercussions that have haunted me throughout my life because I wouldn’t change, CANCER is the result.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I have carnivores in the house so I accommodated them AND made myself a wholesome meal of a lifestyle that I now embrace. The guys had their small turkey (breast), stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and I tossed in some corn for them. Me? I had baked sweet potatoes smothered in organic maple syrup, cinnamon, and chunks of pineapple. I also enjoyed sauerkraut with grass-fed chicken sausage, and I had corn also. I treated myself to a dinner roll, too. I was so full when I was done it felt like I had gained much-needed poundage. Later, I also had a big slice of an organic pumpkin pie I made!

Sometimes we can embrace change or suffer the repercussions. Nobody in my house felt deprived of a huge turkey dinner and no one was fighting for the Rolaids afterward! My man has chosen to change. He’s cutting back his sugar intake, watching the carbs, taking a vitamin and in two weeks has already gone down a belt size; all because he CHOSE to change.

I don’t tell people they HAVE to change, I mention that change is good and healthy but I think they already know that and have CHOSEN to stay the same and suffer the repercussions. So as you knock back that beer, devour that bottle of wine, overindulge in a meal because it is there, remember the repercussions and the old saying, “A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.” While I am most thankful for the food I was able to eat, I am more thankful for the opportunity to CHANGE and turn my health and life around and not stay the same.

All praise and glory to God!

Pss. 55:19 “God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.”

Oh God (the movie)

1 John 1:5 "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

Oh God

The other night we watched the movie ‘Oh God’, I’d say a classic from 1977. I didn’t realize how poignant it was until viewing it as an adult who happens to love all things, God. 

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Carl Reiner directed this sweet comedy about the Man Upstairs visiting Earth in the form of a funny little guy (George Burns). John Denver is the good man chosen to be God's contact in the modern age--and like an Old Testament prophet, Denver's character pays the price by being ridiculed and faced with criminal charges. Denver is a warm presence, but the film is entirely in Burns's court. Reiner feeds him lines that come out of Burns' mouth like stage patter, and it's no wonder he got a huge career boost from this film in the winter of his life. Except for some courtroom stuff in the third act--where Reiner inadvertently cheapens the movie with editing tricks to suggest "miracles"--Oh, God! is just fine. (It's certainly better than its two perfunctory sequels, Oh God! Book II and Oh God! You Devil.) 
--Tom Keogh

A few quotes from the movie:

God: "Did Man fall from grace in the Garden of Eden?" I'll tell you something never came out. I made Adam 17. Eve was 15, 16 tops. I figured then 16, 17 was middle age, you know. Who knew people would live so long? Trees I figured had the best chance. Now I realize that they were kids, babies. Young people can't fall from my grace. They're my best things.

God: I know how hard it is in these times to have faith. But maybe if you could have the faith to start with, maybe the times would change. You could change them. Think about it. Try. And try not to hurt each other. There's been enough of that. It really gets in the way. I'm a God of very few words and Jerry's already given you mine. However hopeless, helpless, mixed up and scary it all gets, it can work. If you find it hard to believe in me, maybe it would help you to know that I believe in you.

Jerry Landers: How can you permit all the suffering that goes on the world?
God: Ah, how can I permit the suffering?
Jerry Landers: Yes!
God: I don't permit the suffering. You do. Free will. All the choices are yours.
Jerry Landers: Choices? What choices?
God: You can love each other, cherish and nurture each other or you can kill each other. Incidentally, "kill" is the word. It's not "waste." If I had wanted "waste" I would have written, "thou shalt not waste." You're doing some very funny things with words. You're also turning the sky into mud. I look down, I can't believe the filth. Using the rivers for toilets, poisoning my fishes. You want a miracle? *You* make a fish from scratch. You can't. You think only God can make a tree? Try coming up with a mackerel. And when the last one's gone, that'll be that. Eighty-six on the fish, goodbye sky, so long world, over and out.

Jerry Landers: I don't even go to any church!
God: Neither do I.

God: Why is it so hard for you to believe? Is my physical existence any more improbable than your own? What about all that hoo-ha with the devil a while ago from that movie? Nobody had any problem believing that the devil took over and existed in a little girl. All she had to do was wet the rug, throw up some pea soup and everybody believed. The devil you could believe, but not God? I work in my own way. I don't, I don't get inside little children; they got enough to do just being themselves. Also, I'm not about to go around to every person in the world and say, 'Look it's me, I wanna talk to you.' So I picked one man. One very good man. I told him God lives. I live. He had trouble believing too, in the beginning. I understood. I'm not sure how this whole miracle business started, the idea that anything connected with me has to be a miracle. Personally, I'm sorry that it did. Makes the distance between us even greater. But if a miracle helps you believe that I am who I say I am... I'll give you one. A good one.

God: The last miracle I did was the 1969 Mets. Before that, I think you have to go back to the Red Sea.

God: [Reading questionnaire] Which of the world's religions is closest to the divine truth?
[to Jerry]
God: The divine truth is not in a building or a book or a story. Put down the heart is the temple where all truth resides.

When Jerry Landers asks God why he won't work some magic and solve all the world's problems God responds, "I gave you a world and everything in it." So Landers says "But we need help!" To which God replies, "That's why I gave you each other."

*** ~~~ ***

This movie is profound on so many levels. We recently watched it and I remember the movie from when I was a kid but it never touched me the way it does watching it as an adult God lover. When Jerry ask God if he’ll come again so they can talk, tears formed in my eyes when the response was, “How about this, you talk and I’ll listen.”

People never feel like God is listening but He is, it’s just people are so caught up in the mundane they don’t have time to listen for an answer and I can rest assure you, He DOES answer. God IS alive! God loves us. I think He’d be much happier if we took responsibility for our actions instead of waited on ‘some guy in the sky’ to whisk in from the clouds and save our sorry tails.

Such a simple plot with such valid answers. Where has this movie in all of its original splendor been hiding? I personally feel that if everyone watched it today with new eyes like I did they’d see the movie in a different light and might, just might start trusting in themselves AND God again. 

To watch this movie you don’t have to be religious, believe in God, or even care if He exists, it’s just a lighthearted movie of its time that isn’t offensive in any way. You know one of those rare movies that aren’t slutified by the times; it’s just a pure wholesome movie for a world that is on its last leg of existence.

John Denver, in his only acting role, plays Jerry a simple honest man (another rarity this day and age) who’s faced with the fact that God chose HIM to carry a message. Funny thing is, God has asked us ALL to carry His message but I see not too many up to the task of doing such a simple job. Watch the movie again…you’ll be glad you did.