Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 24

Romans 12:12

Last Sunday, I posted Matthew 11:28 and went over itseveral times a day. I have memorized it – for now. We’ll see if it’s still inmy head six months from now. How about you? Did you try committing it tomemory.

This week, let’s let our hope keep us joyful, let’s bepatient when we have troubles, and let’s pray at all times.

Be joyful in hope,patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12, New InternationalVersion)

 

Flashback Friday to a Turtle

     Thisblog post come up on memories on Facebook the other day, and I thought it was worthsharing.

Oneafternoon, while cleaning out the linen closet, I came across this great find.

Hername is Mrs. Tuttle. Yes, she is a little ratty but at 55 plus years old, Ithink she is managing. The story, as I remember it, is that my sister Pat and Iwere spending the night in Wausau with our much older sister. Judy is 15 yearsolder than me and was working at a bank and living in an apartment building whichis long gone. She bought me and Pat each a stuffed animal. Mine was the turtleand Pat’s – well it really wasn’t a stuffed animal.

Itwas a hideous plastic snake. If you can picture a Hawaiian lei where theflowers are four inches in diameter but flat and green, white or yellow thickplastic, and when spread out this thing is five feet long, that is pretty closeto what that thing looked like. Hideous. I don’t remember what Pat named the snake, but it had many adventureswith Mrs. Tuttle and our other stuffed friends. 

Ihave a picture of that snake somewhere. I’ll have to try to find it. 

Matthew 11:28

 On Wednesday, I wrote a little bit about resolutions,mostly about how people break them within a few weeks. And here we are twoweeks into the new year.

I can’t say that this is a resolution I’ve ever had,but I’ve always wanted to memorize more Bible verses. Sure, I know the 23rdPsalm and John 3:16. I know quite a few more, but I can never remember theexact book they come from or which verse number they are.

Like “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid orterrified, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you norforsake you.” Probably a bad example as nearly the same verse is in four differentbooks of the Bible – Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1 Chronicles, and 2 Chronicles.

Anyway, this is what I’m going to do for the next fewweeks. Share a Bible verse which you may be familiar with and work onmemorizing it over the next week.

     “Come to me, all you who are weary andburdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28, New International Version)

I’ll let you know how I did next Sunday.

What do you resolve to do this year?

    Does anyone make New Year’s Resolutionsanymore? I haven’t seen any posted online from anyone, and no one has mentionedtheirs to me. Have those ol’ resolutions gone the way of the rotary phone andrabbit ears on the console TV?

So, maybe many of us could stand to lose some weight, exercise more and eat healthier. Maybe weshould watch our language and go to church more often. Are there any otherresolutions that are always broken by the tenth of January?

Howabout this instead – just be kind. Be kind to your family and friends, to yourco-workers, and to those who wait on you at the fast-food place (where youbroke your first resolution as quickly as Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes).Maybe be kind to strangers.

Opendoors for people you don’t know, offer to shovel your neighbor’s sidewalk, andshop locally to support small businesses. Umm? What else? Mail athinking-of-you card to someone you missed on the Christmas card list.

Andstop talking smack about other people, whether they are someone who personallydid you wrong or someone running for public office. I think we all could make aresolution to avoid listening to the news until the presidential election isover. Don’t even get me started.

So,be kind. Be gentle. Be loving and caring. And not only towards others, buttowards yourself as well. 

Maythe Lord reward you well for the kindness you have shown me today. (1 Samuel24:19, New Living Translation)

Imyself have gained much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, becauseyour kindness has so often refreshed the hearts of God’s people. (Philemon 7, LivingBible)

A Visit from the Wisemen

        After the wise men heard the king, theyleft. The star that they had seen in the east went before them until it stoppedabove the place where the child was. When the wise men saw the star, they werefilled with joy. They came to the house where the child was and saw him withhis mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened theirgifts and gave him treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:9-11,New Century Version)

In the Christian church, January 6 commemorates thevisit of the Wisemen.

We always picture these men arriving on camels andwearing exotic clothing and robes. There’s always three of them, and they showup at the stable along with the shepherds.

Bible scholars pretty much agree that the Magi didn’tarrive at the time of Jesus’ birth. It could have been anywhere from a fewweeks to a few years before they showed up. They had followed that star all theway from somewhere in the East and who knows how long that took them.

Everyone assumes that because they brought threegifts, there must have been three of them. There could have been twelve wiseguys coming to visit Jesus, or only two. It doesn’t matter. What matters isthat they brought gifts and bowed down to worship the young Christ child.

Since the Wisemen were not Jewish, their visit is moreimportant than just the gifts they brought to the Savior. They represent the Gentiles– the non-Jews – so they signify that Jesus came to save everyone, not just theJewish people.

Two and a half months later

Iwasn’t going to write a blog today. Still recovering from the Holidays. Then Ilooked back and realized that I never told you anything else about the few daysI spent at an AirBnb with my friend back in October. And here we are two and a half months later. 

 Thefirst day we bombed around Ladysmith, as I blogged about a while back.

 Oursecond day at the cabin it rained a lot, but we were still able to get out andexplore a bit.

 ChequamegonWaters Flowage. It was gloomy and foggy that morning, but I still used the creativesetting on my camera for this one. 

Nextwe drove to Gilman, explored this park, crossed all three bridges, walked pastthe Gilman Cheese Factory (the only place happening in this town), drovethrough the campground, and tried our best to figure out what was going on withthe garbage can.  

Thenthe gloom and mist turned to a torrential rain and we were done exploring forthe day. We still had a lot of fun.

Inflammation and the Diet to Subdue It.

            In my blog post this past Sunday, Imentioned I had started an anti-inflammatory diet. Two of you commented thatyou’d like to hear more about that, so I would like to oblige you.

           I will try to keep the backgroundinformation to a minimum, but I need to share where this idea came from. Well,that’s easy, the internet, of course.

           Also, when I told my massagetherapist about all of my problems, she agreed that inflammation could be thesource. She gave me the name of a naturopathic provider two of her otherclients had seen. 

           Enough background. And a quickdisclaimer – none of what I will tell you is medical advice. Even though thispractitioner gave me most of this material, you can find it all on the internetas well.

           Inflammation starts out as yourbody’s way of fighting infection, injury, illness, etc. It’s supposed to swoopin and help your body heal from these things. But sometimes, for whateverreason, once that inflammation is roaming around inside of you, once it hasdone its job, it hangs around like a creeper in a bar who has been trying topick up women.

           However, there are certain foodsthat inflammation loves and certain foods that are like throwing a fire onit. 

           So, first, here are the foods onwhich inflammation thrives: anything with gluten, like wheat, rye, barley;anything that has been processed, such as white sugars, refined carbs,lunchmeats, and most anything out of a box; dairy, including cheese, yogurt,butter; fried foods; almost any snack you reach for while watching an episodeof Stranger Things, like potato chips, cookies, cakes, etc.; most anything thefamily served over Christmas, you know, like the cheese and sausage tray oranything made with gravy.

           Okay, so inflammation likes prettymuch every food which gives us a reason to live. And I mention the showStranger Things because I feel like the Demogorgon is crawling around inside ofme, and every time I eat anything on the bad list, he gets all excited andgrows more limbs.    

           Sorry for the warped and overactiveimagination.

           So, what can I eat? From the listabove, you may realize that this diet is gluten-free, dairy-free, andsugar-free.

           So, load me up with oatmeal,spinach, kale, quinoa, wild rice, brown rice, chia seed, flax seed, almondmilk, almond yogurt, honey, maple syrup, olive oil, coconut oil, walnuts andmost other nuts except not peanuts, legumes, tomatoes, fruits especiallyberries, pineapple, and fatty fish like salmon, tuna, and mackerel.

            A few things like potatoes, eggs,and popcorn are kinda neutral, but you can’t put anything from the bad list onthem, such as butter or anything else which makes them palatable. (Remember theair poppers from the ‘80s? You can have that popcorn without the butter.)

            Oh, boy.

           I’ve been taking GlucosamineChondroitin with MSM for years but never really felt it was doing much. A fewmonths ago, I started a Joint Health and Mobility supplement which includesthose as well as Curcumin, Omega-3, Collagen precursors, Hyaluronic acid, andBioperine. I still haven’t noticed much difference on all of that.

           So, this naturopath started me on ahigher dose of Curcumin. She also has me on some anti-inflammatory drops, lowback pain drops, and a probiotic/prebiotic, which has all the good bacteriapeople talk about and then some.

           All of that is well and fine, albeitexpensive. Except for the apple cider vinegar she recommended I take. Thatstuff is the worst. Oh, my gosh, there are no words. But I mix it with somehoney and water, chase every sip with more water, and get it down.

           Lastly, every morning, I drink a cupof warm water with the juice from half a lemon in it. She recommended I drinklemon in my water all day, but I like my water plain. And, yes, of course, drink plenty of water. 

           Whether any of that is working ornot, I can’t tell. I have a few more good days than before, but there are stilltoo many bad days. Over the weekend, I had two full days where I needed to walkwith a cane, so those were bad days and were not acceptable to me at my age.When I’m pushing 80 and all of my hair is white, I’ll use that cane with pride,but not now.

           It’s been five weeks, so I thinkit’s reasonable to give it another week when I have another appointment withthe naturopath. Then I can either give her a piece of my mind or be over themoon happy that by then, my pain, stiffness, achiness, and shortness of breathwill magically be gone. 

            So there you have it.

 

Oh,and the picture is from when I was at Hell’s Gate in Kenya in 2017. That day, Ihiked for miles and climbed up and down treacherous terrain, something I couldnever do today. But that’s my goal, to go hiking and climbing again.

Word of the Year - Comfort

          Whenever I am anxious andworried, you comfort me and make me glad. (Psalm 94:19, Good News Translation)

On top of the back pain which migrated to pain allover my body for most of 2023, I started having chest pain in November. After aweek of it, I finally saw my primary care doctor, who ran all sorts of testsand set me up for a nuclear stress test. The night before that appointment, asI lay in bed with over-the-top anxiety, I randomly opened my Bible and read theabove verse.

I ran those words through my head like a mantra untilI fell asleep.

The test went well. I didn’t pass out walking on thetreadmill and my heart didn’t freak out to the point they had to send me to theER.

A few days later, my doctor called to say that mostof the stress test was normal – in his words, my plumbing was all good. But oneof the numbers was elevated, which he didn’t think meant anything bad, but inlight of my symptoms and family history, he thought I should see acardiologist. That appointment isn’t until January 24, but I am seeing theprimary care doc the week before that and having some labs repeated. I haven’thad any more chest pain, just shortness of breath with activity.

I also have been seeing a naturopathic provider, whostarted me on an anti-inflammatory diet. It makes sense to me – something isgoing on in my body and inflammation can cause most of my symptoms. So far, noone seems to know if that can cause my heart concerns, but hopefully thecardiologist can tell me. And hopefully, with this diet I’m on, theinflammation will be settled down by then so that she says, “What are you doinghere? Your heart is a rock star.”

In the meantime, all I can do is watch what I eat, takethe recommended supplements, and pray.

God is good. He will comfort me in all of my troubles.He will take away my anxiety and grant me comfort and joy. 

Zion

          O Zion, messenger of good news, shoutfrom the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not beafraid. Tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is coming!”

          Yes, the Sovereign Lord is coming inpower. He will rule with a powerful arm. See, he brings his reward with him ashe comes.

          He will feed his flock like ashepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart.He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. (Isaiah 40:9-11, NewLiving Translation)

Bornof a virgin, in a lowly stable, Jesus our Savior is born!

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earthpeace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14, New King James Version)

Yoke

      “Come to me, all of you who are tired fromcarrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you,and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will findrest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you islight.” (Matthew 11:28-30, Good News Translation) 

Asyou know, I’ve been going through the alphabet the month of December, leadingup to Christmas Eve. (And, yes, I skipped Q and X.)

I’vebeen keeping each post short, as it’s a challenge to write much every day. I've also kept my personal life out of my blog for a change. But today’s word warrants a little more.  

Ifyou know me, you probably recall that I’ve been dealing with pain since April1, first in just my low back, but over the months, it has spread everywherethroughout my body. It has become a heavy load for me. Add to that the manyother stressors in my life, and that yoke completely drags me down.

Everyday I’m reminded of the above verse, and I thank God for sending His Son to be ourSavior. Jesus bore our heaviest loads on the cross when He died for our sins. Ineed not carry all that weight on my yoke. I need to turn it over to Jesus.

It’staken eight months, but praise God, my pain has started to lift.