Faith and Healing

Well, if you saw the presentation I prepared, "The Link Between Nutrition and Mental Health" you know I opened the conversation with two slides on "faith healing"; and in my email that delivered the presentation, you may recall reading that I noted I had a lot of trials and tribulations just to get the presentation completed and sent out on time and that I would share that story in the blog. Here it is. The good news is that I did meet my promised deadline. The bad news were the many trials that challenged me and the lingering effect. But the even better news? I made new friends, I served God, He saw me through the challenge, I grew in strength and trust. The good news is that I grew within, even if it did have a cost. The good news is my faith has deepened and the good news is, I confirmed to myself once again, God is great. Like I really needed more proof. Now, I'm not saying that my situation was death dying bad, but ... how bad? Well, I will let you be the judge of that answer.  I'll begin at the beginning: As a person who worked in large corporate structures with heavy responsibility and the significantly burdensome pressure of highly visible jobs, I had lots of deadlines and people to make happy.  I am not afraid of deadlines or hard work. I plan my work and that has always led me down the path to get it done. But this time, it's different, my service it ultimately to God through serving His people. And while there was no earthly bonus that I know of, there appeared to be a little mischief going on in my life. I call to mind an image of two horns, a red body and long wicked tail, you just might be able to name him. It started to remind me of the story of Job. We all live the story of Job once in a while. We are all challenged, but it's how we meet the challenge that can make the difference in one's life. I planned the presentation out 60 days in advance, which is plenty of time for me to work daily to research, gather, develop, write, create and deliver - a total package with slides turned into video presentation and two handouts: one four pages with some significant detail and one, a form for reflection.  The goal was to deliver the presentation one week after the fair. I was not supposed to be at the fair because I attend school for Spiritual Direction on weekends and this was a school weekend. I never miss school! I have an A type personality and expect only the best from myself in school. Otherwise, why waste the money and time. By the week before the fair, the presentation was 95 percent written and the resource form was at least 90 percent complete, nothing yet on the Reflection Form. In the weeks just prior to the fair, where I was doing some substance writing, a contractor completely obliterated the neighborhood fiber optic line and in so doing tore completely up the AT & T cable for internet, which is what we have. So, here we begin my saga, with even with the best laid plans. Initially this was only supposed to take one night and the next morning, but lucky us, the contractor (not ours) brought his Ditch Witch (earth moving equipment) into fix the problem the contractor caused, and it totally broke down on our front lawn. So now, we have this nonfunctioning equipment on our front yard not assisting with our nonfunctioning cable; the repair took an additional day and a half to complete. No computer, no internet and no TV for this entire time, plus all the yards were a mess and our driveways were always blocked. Okay, we move on down the road 10 days. With precious work time already lost, also school time because I do have to go to school online as well during the week for herbalism and I missed two nights of that, so now I'm getting a little stressed. On this tenth day in, the same sub-contractor (not ours but a corporate service provider installing cable into the neighborhood, again) knocked out most of the street's internet for another 2 - 2.5 days. Really? How is this even possible?  I will say that God also sent AT & T angels who worked long hard hours in our neighborhood to fix what others broke and get us up and running as quickly as they could while working around the other contractor repairs. Oy vey! This now has brought me to one week before. I am still not overly worried; I am very efficient and capable. Yes, and also in prayer. God sent me angels this month to help me too, I am very thankful. My angel, Helen, helped read documents, checked new website views and functioning (yep, I still have this to share) because I was still building my own website, which is now beautiful. He also sent me my angel, Craig, because he researched and set up an inventory site for me and also, he built a very cool program for contacts, such as those contacts you meet at a fair. But, within the same ten days before the commotion of internet disaster, I was finishing up my new website and the website had some issues that were not of my doing and that's when AT & T went down. I had to get a Zen Business tech to help me with the website. We had to stop and start over again and again, with the timing of the outside damage to the internet. This angel was named Nikkii. She jumped right in and took my hit list of website app issues and worked right through it with me, checking in with me every step to make sure it was functioning as it should, and she did it with a smile I could see even over the phone. We resolved every last piece, she worked for days and at no charge--that's quite an angel. Let me just say that none of my angels charged me a penny. We are now one week before the fair. I had two angels, Craig and Helen who offered to man my booth at the fair all day Saturday so I could attend school. They were all prepped and ready with brochures, a poster, business cards, logoed shirts and raffle prizes. But then, just five days out from the fair, there was a health exposure and then we all decided, the night before the fair, Craig and Helen had to step away from manning the booth (totally understandable as they could not risk any exposure for a loved one's safety). Now what? I prayed, I opened my heart to God and called my school, bright and early morning, the now morning of the fair and my other angel Kathy said, don't worry about it, your work is always outstanding, you never missed a day, go and take care of your business. So, I felt this was an answer from God and so I did this and felt peace. Ahhh, I was beginning to breathe, having fun at the fair and planning to finish up the few little pieces left to do for the presentation and send it on its way the following weekend. But then...hmmm...I became ill, so Monday I went for a covid test and thankfully, it was negative, this was good, but I was still sick. But over the next day or so, as I was working feverishly (literally) to get the work completed, I got better for one whole day... I got my work completed and sent out as promised but yeah, you can hear the raspy voice in the presentation. But the next day, whacked me like a freight train. A mighty painful deep chest cough, a severe sore throat, wheezing, headache, so yes, I went back into health care, and they determined I was having severe asthma along with a bacterial infection, it just needed a little time to show its ugly head. Yes, I feel like Job in many ways, but I did keep trusting in God and forging through, but this illness is scary illness because I had a spongy hole in my lungs just last year from covid and very significant injury to my lungs in 2008 from an environmental exposure. The devil always knows where to throw his punch, but its too late, he's just mad because I made it through, now he's vindictive. I never shifted my purpose; God saw me through. A lot of people might think, you got sick because you were so stressed. "Yes" maybe, stress absolutely lowers resistance, no question. But I got sick because of circumstances that led to my stress and circumstances (although no one knows what that was) that led me to contract the bacteria) The stress was just an added factor. Another angel said, God is trying to get your attention!" This is my angel, Sandra. God has my attention daily; I pray throughout every day and meditate. He had much of my attention during all the crisis going on, but she wasn't wrong because I knew I had prior lung issues. I know I have very strong but sensitive lungs. This is why I run four times a week and walk the other three; everyday as much as possible, so I can keep them as strong as I can. God did whisper in my ear a few times, maybe you should wear your mask to the event. I guess my pride didn't want me to, I don't know why I actually didn't, but I sure wish I did. God was trying to get my attention, and I blew it off as if it didn't matter. But it did matter, and it does matter. Prevention matters and we should never tempt the Lord our God, with any of our health issues. When I look back over it all, I see God's hand in everything with angels, albeit the human angels I saw, I don't know if there were any others, but I bet so. My angels worked so hard to help me succeed. What a gift. But my lungs, they got hurt and God did not prevent my illness just because I was doing a good work, because I made a choice not to help myself where I should have done so. I am thankful I am here to say, "Lesson learned", you will probably see me wearing a mask at the next event or wherever large amounts of people are in small speaking spaces, like my table. Also, I always heard, and definitely believe, the devil doesn't bother those who are doing things not of God, he already has them under control. He tackles the Jobs out there. The people trying to do good for his people and that was my intent. Job is a story of a man who faces many obstacles and challenges of life, some of which are pretty painful and horrible. and how faith and walking in faith, brings Grace and healing. Note Job was not spared pain and suffering, although i am holistic and don't readily run to medicine, medicine is good and necessary for many things, especially things like big bad illness, heart attack, broken leg, etc. those things that require immediate medical treatment and fast medicine, this was my case. The angel here was my nurse, she provided the help I needed to get me on the wellness path so I just might be around long enough to do it right the next time.  God bless and may you have faith in your healing and choose to do what you need to do to stay well.

In His love and care,

Candy