A Merry Heart Doeth Good Like A Medicine

[1]

Proverbs 17:22 The Message Bible

²² A cheerful disposition is good for your health;
    gloom and doom leave you bone-tired.

 

It was 6:30 in the morning. Chantal walked down the hallway chanting “Devotions—De-vo-tions.

Last summer Sylvia and I spent 17 days in The Lifestyle Center at Uchee Pines Institute in Alabama. My purpose for being there was to explore an alternate method to bring my cancer under control. Every morning Chantal would walk up and down the hallway at 6:30 a.m. chanting “Devotions—Devotions” with strong emphasis on the last syllable while ringing a handbell. She taught us to sing a cappella the King James inspired version of this song:

 

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine

      Like a medicine is a merry heart

But a broken spirit drieth the bones

      A merry heart doeth good,

Doeth good like a medicine.[2]

 

 

A piano sat in the worship room, but there seemed to be no one to play it. So, Sylvia went up to the keyboard and was soon playing that chorus purely by ear. It added fullness to the song.

Every morning Chantal brought us a message of faith and hope in our pursuit of health. Then we would sing this chorus, to Sylvia’s accompaniment, and go out for the day’s activities and our treatments.

I was somewhat surprised and greatly gratified that when we left Uchee Pines, my PSA had been cut in half, and I had lost close to 30 pounds. PSA is an indication of how much prostate cancer I have in my body. Since that time, I have maintained both improvements to the date of this writing.

Much of life at U.P. is one of discipline: “vitals” at 5:50 a.m., “devotions” at 6:30, three meals that are strictly vegan with practically no sugar and very little fat, lectures on avoiding the excesses of modern American life, nauseating herbal teas, and decidedly uncomfortable hydrotherapy treatments. The “Merry Heart” catchy tune, the gentle walks amongst the pines and other trees after meals, and prayers for each other allowed the healing to become a reality. Our group formed a camaraderie that has continued since that time.

We are grateful to You, Lord, for using the simple things to improve our lives.

 

 

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPXhFQvEuso

[2]For the tune, see  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLfFQl6zKD0

Preacher, Cook, Blog

[i][ii]

Psalm 143:8

Good News Translation (GNT)

⁸ Remind me each morning of your constant love,
    for I put my trust in you.
My prayers go up to you;
    show me the way I should go.

I sat in the large congregation of people celebrating the life of Dr. Harold Fagal. As they told of how he had let his witness be known, first as a pastor and later as a professor, I decided that I should write down my thoughts about God and put them somewhere where others could read about them if they wanted to.

I created a file on my computer called simply Devotions, and my first entry was on January 26, 2011. I continued filing my thoughts and turning over and over in my mind how I might place them where others could see them if they chose to. People had spoken about blogs and how they could find things on a blog. I had no clue what a blog was, but that weird word stuck in my head.

Then I purchased the video Julie & Julia simply because my daughter’s name is Julia (and definitely not Julie). In the movie Julie created a blog where she entered her experiences of cooking each of the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The blog gained lots of readers. Julie then published these blogs in a book. Julia Child was livid with anger; she felt that Julie was simply using her name to make money. I said to myself that if Julie could make a blog, so could I.

Between Julie and my own nagging head, I started to investigate blogs. I found there were lots of public blogs. Many of them cost a monthly fee, which I was not about to pay. Some of them were free, and Blogspot seemed to be a leader in the free group.

So on November 8, 2013, I posted my first blog, entitled Speaking Well, about a young soldier on duty in Germany who spoke the most abominable English I had ever heard but loved me into reconsidering Christianity after I had completely given up on it. I ended that blog with the prayer “Thank You, Lord, for your love that flowed through this soldier to me. May Your love flow through me to others!”

For seven years now I have written hundreds of devotions, and for well over five years I have posted some of them. I tend to be technologically challenged, and it still takes me a half hour or more to post a single blog, not counting the hour or two it takes me to think about it and write it down. I see that last year I only posted 13, about once a month! I can do better than that.

Father in Heaven, You remind me each morning of Your love for me; help me to express my appreciation to You more frequently.

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[i]Harold  Fagal http://ak-cache.legacy.net//legacy/images/cobrands/PE/photos/mugs-513521mg_20110109.jpgx?w=200&h=200&option=3&fc=fff

[ii] Julia Child http://cook.fnr.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/cook/editorial/blog/legacy/devour/2010/8/Julia-Child-The-French-Chef-588.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.616.462.suffix/1505357138862.jpeg