Great Sorrow and Great Joy on Thursday, January 30th, 2025

Good morning (et cetera) dear Reader and welcome (back?) to this obscure slice of American cyberspace today.

With no further ado, here is the day's Proverb:

Proverbs 30 ESV

And, prayer. 
Dear Lord God, thank You for waking us up today, those of us whose eyes opened on this side of the grass thank You for the gift of being alive today and ask that You give us the grace to appreciate it more today than ever before, God, and thank You. We continue to seek Your face and Your Will, God, and ask that You make Yourself and Your Will known to each of us today with more clarity and truth than ever before, in Jesus' Name, God. Lord, please continue to replace War globally with Your Peace, everywhere that War currently rages, God, and deliver the innocent from the hands of the enemy, God. Lord, we ask for You to defeat all powers of evil currently warring against You and us, Your people. Father God, please empower all of Your angels and us, Your saints, unto good and sacred works that please the heart of God and give You glory, for Your Name's sake, in Jesus' Name. Father God, please deliver the people of the world from all wicked leaders and replace them with leaders who love and worship You in spirit and in truth, God, for which we give You glory and endless gratitude, Lord, in Jesus' Name! Dear God, please cover all godly leaders and all the faithful who surround them with Your hedge of holy protection and expose any and all the unfaithful into the light of truth, letting no evil slip past Your eyes, God, and we thank You! Father, please protect all of the unborn from slaughter today, God! Please impart a mothers love into the heart of every pregnant woman on earth today - now! - please, in Jesus' Name! And thank You! Lord, please open the eyes of human understanding all across the globe today, God, and show them Your truth and light! Lord, please find and deliver every "lost" innocent migrant child from any and all evil situations, God, and bring ALL perpetrators of evil to Your Justice, in Jesus' Name! Lord, please reveal all truth and pour Your Words into our hearts, Lord, in Jesus' Name. Please, extend salvation to every hungry soul who will repent and embrace truth, God, and we thank You for everything! Please also answer every secret and/or forgotten prayer, in accordance with Your will, please, and we give You praise. And, God, I ask for You to empower me to speak the truth IN LOVE, and use me as Your mouthpiece in whatever capacity You choose, if at all, and thank You. Father, we also ask that You minister Your healing loving grace, Your conviction, and that all of YOUR purposes be realized and fulfilled through us, today and always, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Great sorrow:
A military helicopter flew into an airplane last night near an airport in or near Washington, D.C. resulting in numerous casualties. Some reports indicate that the helicopter was engaged in a training exercise when the collision occurred. It's a horribly sad and terrible situation - Dear Lord God, please pour Your soothing love and grace onto every affected survivor and please prevent this from ever happening again, in Jesus' Name, amen. 

Great Joy (on a much, much smaller scale):
And now, I would like to tell you about a recent personal medical scare.
Not 24 hours ago, in fact, I was on an operating room table under a heart-surgeon's care - but let me start from the very beginning.
On January 28th, I awoke at the normal (for me) time (around 2 or 3 a.m.) and noticed a consistent ache (about 5 intensity on a scale of 1-10) deep in my chest and upper-abdomen area. Frankly, it felt like pretty intense indigestion? I'm still not even really sure; I do know that it felt different from the heart attack that I had in August of 2021.

Since I wasn't sure of what was going on, though, I thought "well, I'd better wait a few hours to give the troponin levels a chance to show up on blood tests" and went about my normal business, until about ten, ten-thirty that morning. The symptoms didn't change at all, neither for better or for worse, for several hours, so - just to be safe even though I was still very dubious - we went to the emergency room at Copper Queen medical there in Douglas. 

Even though I told the young lady at the front desk "hey, don't freak out or anything, but I do have a history of one heart attack, and have some dull chest pain so I thought I'd better come be seen just in case" - but freak out she did, anyway, and a team of people immediately rushed me into the first open room and began treating me all at once, each with his or her task. They were a well-oiled machine of professionals! I'm very, very impressed with everything about how I was treated, in fact (and thank God for them all!).
Well, wouldn't you know it - my troponin levels were, in fact, elevated, and that pretty much almost only occurs as the result of some form of cardiac event. Within minutes, I was on a stretcher in a helicopter and flown to another hospital in Tucson, about an hour helicopter flight from Douglas.

Shortly before departure, though, I posted a quick 'hospital selfie' to one social media platform and immediately had several people praying for me. 

The new hospital continued IV Heparin therapy, and continued to monitor the ever-increasing troponin levels; my pain remained consistent. Several hours and numerous tests later (EKG tests and even a lengthy heart ultrasound) the next day in the morning, in fact, I was taken to the operating room where another group of fabulous, efficient professionals attended me.

The surgeon made an incision in my right wrist, a tiny little point of access for his equipment to access the inside of my heart (identical to my first heart-surgery experience). This time, though, once he was in the heart proper, the surgeon continued to evince surprise because he was unable to find anything wrong, there was nothing for him to have to fix. 

So, thank You, God, and thanks to every single person who even did so much as throw up a quick "please heal her Lord, in Jesus' Name" because He did exactly that. I know that I didn't have a heart attack and it resolved itself. NO, I had a heart attack, and God healed me with His own hand. I am, and will forever be, grateful. I've told you this 1) to glorify God and praise Him for this miracle and 2) to encourage the faith of any and all who read this truthful, recent account. 

And, for those determined to discredit God and His healing power, here is verifiable, documented medical evidence in two photos that I took of my discharge paperwork:

☝

Please keep the families of the victims of the recent airplane+helicopter tragedy in your prayers today, dear Reader, please - the survivors and loved ones are going to heavily need them (your prayers) and thank you for spending time with me today.
Be well, be blessed, and take care!