Stepping into 2025

 

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

As we step into the new year of 2025, it’s a great time to pause and reflect on the lessons and growth from the past twelve months. Have you taken time yet to reflect on your 2024 epiphanies? 

I have had many. Here are a few: 

• Applaud yourself, and focus on what is going well
• Ask for or hire help as needed
• Be generous, give when you can
• Be yourself, not what someone wants you to be
• Celebrate that you are healthy!
• Don't catastrophize about what might happen, live in the present
• Give your problems to God, let go
• Let go of trying to control everything
• Nurture your faith, and tend your soul
• Pray for others and your own situations
• Set your boundaries and stick to them realizing they are for your own good
• Speak less, listen more
• Stop being a perfectionist
• Trust God, don't worry so much
• Watch less TV news, there's a lot of fear-mongering going on

One of my huge personal realizations this year has been understanding the root of my ongoing fatigue and its connection to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and associated waves of myalgic pain. Gaining clarity and names for these challenges has been transformative—it’s given me a direction for managing them better so that I have the best quality of life I can have. And ruling out other possible issues has been liberating. All other tests were negative. I'm healthy!

Through research, medical advice, and trial and error, one word emerged that shaped my year in relation to managing the CFS and myalgic pain is pacing. Learning to pace myself intentionally has been a game changer, and it’s something I encourage everyone to consider. Whether it’s about your health, your goals, or simply balancing life’s demands, pacing can make all the difference. 

What word or concept shaped your 2024? How might it guide you in 2025?

Request for Prayer

I have had 3 weeks of myalgia in my neck, head, and upper back. (Myalgia describes muscle aches and pain, which can involve ligaments, tendons and fascia, the soft tissues that connect muscles, bones and organs.)

Nothing I take seems to relieve the ache. 

I have tried, heat, ice, hot showers, OTC pain meds, supplements, stretches, rest, and now have my Dr. Ho Tens machine going on it. 

I know I can pray for myself. 

I know Jesus prays for me.

Romans 8:34 (NIV) speaks of Jesus’ role in praying or interceding for us: “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”

I also reach out to people to pray for me.

What you can do - pray for my myalgia to heal. Pray that I discover the next right step to take. 

1. James 5:14-16 (NIV):

“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

2. Matthew 18:19-20 (NIV):

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

I have things to do, places to go, people to see, and I need a feeling of wellness and energy to do this. May God touch my body and heal the myalgia. AMEN. 

A New Season, A New Blog

I'm excited to announce the launch of yet another blog! 

I considered adding the new posts here to save time, but after some prayer and a timely email I received, I felt led to create a dedicated space on a new Blogger platform. This new blog dives into the growing conversation around the deconstruction of Christian faith. If you're curious about why church pews are becoming emptier, why your own desire to attend in person might be fading, or what others are doing in response, I invite you to tune in and explore these topics with me.

The new blog is here

Reporting on Visitor's Stats and Thank You to Readers

Ruthven

Before I write a new post on a new theme, I thought I'd pause to say thank you to all who have visited this blog. I've kept it up because it still gets 'views'. And, it's a great place for me to express myself. 

Here are the latests stats. And this is only from 2011. (I started this blog around 2008 and rebooted it in 2011.)

Back in the early days, I had access to more analytics Blogger offered with the simple click of a link. I was able to see what visitors had typed into the search bar to arrive here. I was able to see what part of the world visitors were from. That gave me insight into what topics to study and write on. But as blogger evolved, the tool was changed and tracking analytics became complicated. So now, I can only guess how visitors arrived here and from where. 

The world has become self-serve. The makers of these apps seem to assume everyone is a tech guru. I'm just not that interested in learning more technical stuff these days! So I will enjoy what I do have access to and understand and pray no more big changes are made to Blogger. 

I've seen this blog grow and evolve since 2008 as I've ploded along on my own evolving faith journey. The journey of writing posts has been a rewarding one--my own little place on the Internet where I can attempt to encourage women. My hidde ministry.

I've had seasons of not adding to the blog. The pandemic was part of that. The special project I got involved with in 2021 was part of that. The brain fog from #CFS has added to it. I've contemplated packing it up. I've asked God for insight. The fact that the blog still gets views after all this time is a reminder of why I continue. 

It’s not just the numbers I'm grateful for, I'm grateful for the personal space it offers me to reflect and express myself and to share about the new things I've learned.

Your support means a lot and has kept me going! 

Navigating Faith and Fatigue: Trusting God Through Tests

This is a followup to my last post on Invisible Illness and God's goodness. 

Based on a collection, over time, of my physical response to fatigue, compared to many others, I'm in the mild category of chronic fatigue. That means I have many good days, but if I over-do it physcially or mentally, I may fall into Post Exertional Malaise (PEM). Ongoing PEM moves me into the moderate category. 

My PEM often arrives 12 to 24 hours after I've overdone something and lasts for a day or two. That something could include yardwork, housework, an exhausting social encounter, working out too hard at my exercise class, or a combination of such. 

When in a bad bout of PEM, I find simple tasks such as making dinner, changing a bed, folding towels, sitting to write, and so on, taxing. The answer is to pace myself and plan for rests and recovery. 

Mind Management 

When I found myself missing church due to PEM I felt some guilt. I wondered if i was making excuses for not going to church. Then a gentleman on a CFS forum said, perhaps God says resting in bed, for you, is a form of worship. Imagine that! 

Once he said that, I enjoyed curling up in bed with my mind focused on God's peace instead of guilt. 

I do want to go on enjoying life as all women do with invisible illness. On good days, I sometimes tell myself I made it all up. I don't have CFS. 

But then I have a funk again. I MUST count on the Lord to guide me. And, my part, is to dedicate myself to trusting God enough that I choose to listen for his nudges instead of quickly making decisions on my own.

MY TESTS

We are hosting a backyard party this weekend. I know the important thing is to have energy to greet guests and allow them a good time, but I have a tendancy to over-clean both the outdoor gardens and the indoors and fancy things up. And now, that kind of work is exhausting.

Planning this gathering seems to be a test. I sense God is suggesting these areas of testing:

• Stress management. Will I resist overdoing everything? 
• Pacing. Will I sit down and rest when He tells me to, or will I keep moving and use up my energy?
• Asking Him for help. Will I say even quick prayers to ask him for help with areas I am tempted to worry about?
• Creativity. I'm keenly aware of how creative God is. Instead of moving ahead with my crazy ideas, will I pause and ask if the crazy idea is from him or simply one more thing that uses up my energy. (Think of adding golf cups to some artificial turf we have to make it a putting green.)

Proverbs 17 says, “Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the Lord tests the heart.”

Why would he test me? What about my heart is being tested in this health challenge? What about hosting a party am I being tested with?

I believe He wants me to learn a new way of living that causes me to rely more on him for every little detail. He wants it to work out. He doesn't plan for my disaster. He wants me to practice pacing myself. And if I do it right this time, I will have proven I can do it again.

Don't we all want God to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant?" As a response to listening for his nudges and following through with them?

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” Matthew 25:23

Benefits of Tests

God’s testing with invisible illness is an invitation to do life with more ease as I choose to slow down. Tests are opportunities for growth and a more intimate relationship with God, and ultimately character development.

With any test or health situation you're facing, remember: God understands your limitations and loves you regardless of how much you do, how often you pitch in to help others, how clean your home is, and how often you physically attend church.

Maintaining your faith walk can look different at different stages of life, and that's okay. What matters is your heart and your intention. So be kind to yourself and rely on the Lord for strength. Jesus invites us to bring our burdens to Him and find rest in Him. I love that. 

Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”