Phone Calls and Turds

 

[1]

Isaiah 1:18 Good News Translation

¹⁸ The Lord says, “Now, let's settle the matter. You are stained red with sin, but I will wash you as clean as snow. Although your stains are deep red, you will be as white as wool.

 

Isn’t religion a bit mysterious? Isaiah states that our sins have stained us red. Then God says: “I will wash you clean like snow or wool.” If one reads the Bible further, one will find that we are washed in the blood of the Lamb[2]. So, our red stains are washed in red blood, and the net result is white as snow.

This reminds me of a phishing call I got this morning at 6;25 a.m. I was peeved. My phone was also peeved; it warned me that the caller was “scam likely.” I answered it anyway because some scammers have turned out to be friends, and I didn’t want it to awaken Sylvia any more than it already had. The conversation went something like this: [contents in brackets were not spoken.]

Me: “Good Morning!”

Scammer: “Hello?”

M. “Good morning?”

S: “Can I speak to Sylvia Clarke?” [May I]

M: “Who is this calling?”

S: “This is erfijdsk from her shipping pharmacy!”

M: “I’m sorry, who did you say you were?”

S: “This is erfijdsk from her shipping pharmacy!”

M: “What do you want?”

S: “Are you authorized to ask questions for her?”

M: “I’m her husband.”

S: “Her new Medicare card is being shipped from her shipping pharmacy.” [pharmacies don’t create new Medicare cards]

M: “What pharmacy?””

S: “From her CVS shipping pharmacy.” [She has no occasion to deal with CVS]

M: “What do you want?”

S: “Her new Medicare card is being shipped from her shipping pharmacy via UPS.”

M: “What is being shipped?”

S: “Her new Medicare card, by UPS.” [Medicare always ships by USPS. Medicare never notifies by telephone. What a terrible thing to awaken me at 6:25 in the morning for all this pure unadulterated bull manure.]

I gently returned the phone to its cradle and sat down and read the verse quoted above.

As you know, many things come to all of us at inconvenient times. They often sound contradictory. Although at times, like the call I got this morning, they are cow turds, they sometimes have vital meaning,. A call that sticks out in my memory was a call one Saturday night at midnight.

It started out, “Do you know Elvin Oblander?” This had every sign of spam. However, if I had hung up on them, Sylvia’s Uncle may have ended up in jail for who knows how long which may have caused his untimely death. Because I answered, we were able to rescue him.

All of our carefully worked out crap filters usually protect us from harm or inconvenience, but they may occasionally cause us to reject absolutely vital information. How can we know?

\Paul warns us[3] “Put all things to the test, hold fast what is good!”

Lord, You promised us wisdom in our choices, wisdom that is extremely vital these days. Please give it to us now. Thank You.

 

 

 

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[2] Revelation 7: 14

[3] 1 Thessalonians 5 :21 GNV

Does God Tarry

[1]

Psalm 27:14 American Standard Version

¹⁴ Wait for Jehovah:
Be strong, and let thy heart take courage;
Yea, wait thou for Jehovah.

 It was tedious being in Arlington Gardens Care Center rehabilitation center after a nasty bout with West Nile Virus. They had done great things for me. When I arrived there, I couldn’t walk. My brain fever had made me speak a bunch of rubbish. I was terribly weak from three weeks of lying in bed. My memory was totally shot. I lost at least five weeks, including three weeks in hospital, of memory about my own experience. I am eternally grateful for all they have done for me; but they didn’t want to quit.

Now I was walking around freely. They insisted I push a wheel chair or a walker wherever I went—not because I needed it to walk—they were afraid that if I fell, I would sue them. My blood pressure was down to less than 110/50, yet they threatened to force the blood pressure medicine down my throat if I didn’t keep taking it. I began keeping it in my mouth until I could get to the bathroom and spit it down the toilet. I urged them to remove my catheter, but they delayed on that for weeks. When they finally removed it, it became evident that it had caused a UTI. They refused to admit that it was true until I finally got the nurse to look at the blood in the toilet after I urinated. Then they delayed treating it for almost a week.

When I demanded that they release me, they threatened that if I walked out on them, they would notify Medicare, and I would never be able to get any rehab again. Why were they so anxious to keep me? I assume because they were making big bucks on me and didn’t have to do the usual nursing service for me. They indicated that the only way they could discharge me was for a committee to meet and discharge me. Most of the people on the committee didn’t know me. They had not even seen me. Their sole interest appeared to be the almighty dollar.

The day I returned home, at long last, I walked around the block our house is on. It’s about ¾ mile (about 1 km), and I made it just fine. That evening my legs cramped, which indicated that I had exercised them far more than they were used to.

I had indeed waited a long time for Jehovah. Maybe He had His reasons for keeping me in rehab for so long.

Thank You, Lord, for overseeing my life and welfare. You surely know what is best for me even when I don’t see it or understand.

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