Journal - The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Well, I’m overdue for an update, so here goes.

I called the lady from the Lion’s Club last Saturday. I had called her a couple of weeks before that and left a message with her husband. She called me back two days later and left me a message, then I called her and left another message. That was it for about a week until I finally called her again last Saturday. She never has called me back so now I’m starting to wonder what that was all about. Maybe she’s away on vacation or something. I debated for a few days about how much I wanted to try and force the issue, but I finally decided I do want to push it. Today I searched the internet and found an email address for the Lion’s Club in Kearney. I sent an email with a brief explanation of my situation and asked if they could help me. I didn’t mention my attempts to contact this other lady, just told them I was trying to get help paying for eye surgery. She might be with the Lion’s in Kearney for all I know, I thought Gibbon had its own chapter but the Lion’s website didn’t show one. So we’ll see if anything comes of that. If nobody answers my email, there’s also a phone number I can try.

On Wednesday I had a dentist appointment. I saw the dentist at the beginning of the month and got three teeth pulled, two wisdom teeth and a molar; this time he started working on my fourth bad tooth which is closer to the front. He did a root canal. I was a little worried about that, I’ve never had one before and everyone always talks about how horrible they are. I found it to be much less of a bother than the extractions, I’ve had very little pain. After the root canal, he filled the tooth with a temporary filling. A little while after we got home, I ate something and the filling popped right out so I had to go back and get another one. My next appointment is September 15 when he will make the final preparations and measurements for a crown. Then I’ll have one more visit to have the crown put in. What a tremendous relief it will be to have that all done. My teeth have been bothering me a lot for a long, long time. I think I’ve mentioned that I even have bad dreams about them sometimes.

On the way home from our second trip to the dentist, we heard kind of a popping sound and one of the wheels on my truck started grinding and squealing very loudly. Our hearts sank because we were already trying to figure out how we were going to pay for this dental work. The sound was like a wheel after the brake pad is completely gone and the brakes are just grinding on metal. We were only about a mile from home when it happened so we drove on home. The noise went away completely but started to come back gradually. Joni said there was a lot of mud caked around the inside of the wheel so it might just be that. Today she took the hose and cleaned it off and the noise is gone. I asked Brad if he could take a look anyway, just in case, I know how expensive brake work can get if you don’t take care of it right away. So we’re going to Brad’s tomorrow. Actually, I asked Brad what was the best place in Kearney to have it looked at, and he said he would do it. My big brother is a pretty good guy. He sure has helped us out a lot over the last year and a half.

So let’s see: Lion’s, dentist, car, I think that’s about it. It’s been a rough week. I was pretty depressed all week about the Lion lady not returning my calls, but I made a decision about that today and feel better. Also, the truck may not be as bad as I first thought so I’m feeling better about that too.

Oh, I don’t know if I ever mentioned my visit to the doctor earlier this month. My sinuses have been kind of bad so I wanted to see what we could do about that. She recommended a nasal spray called Nasocort. I used Nasonex for several years and it worked well for me, and the doctor said Nasocort is pretty much the same thing. She sent in some paperwork for me to see if I can get it for free from the pharmaceutical company through their assistance program. I’ve been getting all my asthma medicine free for several months now and Nasocort is made by the same company so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. In the meantime, the doctor gave me several free samples.

So that’s about it. See you next time!

Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Song of the Blind Plowman

Hi friends. I got an email from Uncle Butch the other day, and he shared something with me that I wanted to pass along. He told me that this is a song he sang when he was in high school, for a musical competition. He couldn’t remember all the words, but he gave me enough so that I was able to find the whole song on the internet. Here are the lyrics:

Song of the Blind Plowman

Set my hands upon the plow,
My feet upon the sod.
Turn my face towards the east,
and praise be to God!

Ev’ry year the rains do fall,
the seeds they stir and spring;
Ev’ry year the spreading trees
shelter birds that sing.

From the shelter of your heart,
brother drive out sin.
Let the little birds of faith
come and nest therein

God has made His sun to shine
on both you and me;
God, who took away my eyes,
that my soul might see.

Those are beautiful lyrics, and the last two lines in particular are very poignant. There’s nothing like going blind, for opening your eyes. God is so good to us and he always knows just exactly what we need, even if we ourselves don’t know. In fact, it seems like we hardly ever know what is best for us.

I am reminded of a story Pastor Mike told us one Sunday. Mike grew up on a sheep farm and he was telling us how stupid sheep are; how they will blindly follow each other, getting themselves into all kinds of trouble. I can’t remember everything he said, but he really had us all laughing at his stories about the sheep. Of course, the moral of his story was that the sheep are fine as long as they are penned up and someone keeps an eye on them, but if they get out of the pen, they head straight for the alfalfa which is deadly poisonous to them.. The sheep don’t care though, they like the taste, so they eat it, and they die. We are a lot smarter than sheep, but we still go straight for the things that are harmful to us, regardless of the consequences.

While I was looking for the lyrics to "Song of the Blind Plowman" I also tried to find out who wrote the song, but I found conflicting information. The web page that had these lyrics named the author as Robert Coningsby Clarke, but I found another page that credited authorship to Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall. The sources that list Clarke seem a little more reliable to me, however, so I’m going with him.

Anyway, I found the lyrics here, and was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of links to actual recordings of the song. Most notably, there is one recording done by Paul Robeson who was a world renowned baritone vocalist until his death in 1976. It’s worth a listen.

Psalms 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

Proverbs 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

Ezekiel 34:11-12 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.