Medicine Power and A Roof Top Experience

I have just recently discovered this verse from Philemon. It’s nestled in a letter to Philemon and his family who lived in Colosse. I love how Paul writes such intimate words to a fellow believer and is encouraging him to do the right things concerning his former slave who is now a brother in Christ. Between the greeting and the plea, Paul cheers them on for their acts of brotherly love and encourages them to continue to share their faith. Wouldn’t we want the “sharing of our faith to be effective and powerful because of our accurate knowledge of every good thing which is ours in Christ?”

Today I’m thrilled to get to share about two different but very significant events that happened recently and have impacted my life for the good. I want to share with you because God has been so faithful to us on this journey. We are learning about “every good thing which is ours in Jesus Christ” and I want to be faithful to give God the Glory for His goodness. The first one involves an answered prayer that many of you have been praying with us for many months and the second event involves a divine appointed meeting inside an igloo on a rooftop bar and grill in Savannah, Georgia. Got your attention with that didn’t I?

I’ll come back to the igloo in Savannah in just a minute, but first I am going to tell you about just how amazing God has been to connect us with a fabulous medical team at MAYO and a diagnosis for my “too many visits” to the bathroom problems after my colostomy reversal.

Answered prayers. Since my colostomy reversal in 2018, my family and I have discovered a whole new world about living with the inability to control or predict when I would need to go to the bathroom. We have learned to laugh and roll with it, because otherwise I would have gone into a depression. We did discover some ways to make life a little better, but for the most part–I either had to take a risk and leave home without knowing the outcome, or stay at home to be able to deal with the problem. I ended up doing some of both over the last year and a half. But recently we were blessed with some medicine that has made a tremendous difference in my life. Nope—not for the cancer, but it has literally been life changing for our family. Back in October we visited with our Gastrointestinal Nurse Practitioner, she came up with a diagnosis for all of my unexplained trips to the bathroom. She told us she thought I had Bile Acid Malabsorption. She then explained that there were not really tests to see if I had the problem, but that taking medicine would either “fix” the problem or it wouldn’t. I was sent home with a prescription for Cholestyramine–which was originally used for people with high cholesterol, but later discovered to solve the problem with BAM. I was given instructions on how to tweak the meds to see if they worked.

Y’all, I am so excited to tell you that it totally worked, and while it is not 100% perfect, we have actually been able to travel in a car for 4 1/2 hours with only a regular lunch break. For those of you that have followed my post-colostomy reversal saga, you KNOW that this is an answered prayer. It took us about 2 months to tweak the meds, but it has been worth the effort.

At the end of December we loaded up the van and made our way to Alabama to be with Ben’s family. It was the first time I had traveled so far since the reversal surgery in July 2018 except for our RV trip. We were able to celebrate Ben’s Dad’s 80th Birthday. Since then we have experienced the joy of attending both Sunday School and Church, going shopping, going to doctor’s appointments, etc., without having to know where a restroom is at all times.

Life changing event! And a big shout out to the genius person who discovered the cholesterol medicine would solve BAM! Don’t know who you are–but I am grateful!

Rooftop Experience. Since that successful trip, I have made a few little getaways. Not as far, but still such a blessing. One of these trips was a visit to Savannah with my precious friend Sam. I met up with her last year if you recall, and we had to stay at the hotel because my tummy was incredibly upset. But not this year, this year we went walking on River Street, ate supper out, and did a little shopping. Things that I have taken for granted in the past, are now events that seem like an adventure and are much treasured.

On this particular trip, we arrived at the hotel on River Street in the early afternoon. Sam was in Savannah for a teacher’s conference for 3 days and I was just the friend who came in for a visit. As we checked into the hotel, the lady registering us asked, “Have y’all ever been to our rooftop bar and grill? We told her that we had not and she said,”You really should–it’s so pretty.” We didn’t think much about that comment. But everywhere we went in the hotel that afternoon, the hotel staff asked us basically the same question, “Have you been to the rooftop bar and grill? It’s beautiful, you’ll like it, you should go.” Sam and I started making a joke of it. One of us would inquire, “Have you been to the roof top bar and grill? and the other one would reply, “You should–it’s beautiful.”

We spent our afternoon on the river walk, taking in the views, the smells, the stores, and eating some yummy food. Most of our time was spent talking and laughing and remembering. We have been doing life together for 30+ years. We have history. We have laughed and cried together, mourned and celebrated together, and prayed for each other. She has been a true gift! Sometime around 7:30 to 8:00 PM we had made our way back to our room, and we asked each other, “Do you want to go to the roof top bar and grill and check out the former American Idol Contestant who was performing? We agreed we should and off we went.

Ok–first things first–it really was beautiful! Imagine a dark sky, stars, additional twinkle lights and views of historical, downtown Savannah–it truly was a lovely space. Secondly, It was COLD! Thankfully, they had those heaters everywhere around the tables. Thirdly, the American Idol singer was actually pretty good–couldn’t tell you which season he was from, but, he was quite enjoyable.

At some point in the evening, Sam and I realized that there was an igloo at the far end of the roof. We could tell it was somewhere we wanted to be because it was totally enclosed with a clear material and twinkle lights but most importantly it had a HEATER inside. We waited until the igloo emptied out and then made our way over to it.

It was perfect inside–warm, with comfy chairs, and fluffy blankets. Every so often, other roof top people would stop by the igloo and check it out, but no one else joined us.

After a little bit of thawing took place, the igloo doors opened up and a couple came in and asked if there was room for them. Of course we said for them to please join us. We passed them a fuzzy blanket and small talk commenced. We found out that they were from the midwest and on vacation. They had flown into Charleston, S.C. and toured that area for about a day and then drove down to Savannah. We continued talking about where we were all from and then somewhere in the middle of sharing, the husband stopped talking, looked at us and told us that they were really on a trip to getaway from their tragic loss of their 9 month old son who had died suddenly from an illness that was misdiagnosed.

In that moment we knew God had put us in the igloo for a time of sharing of our faith, our comfort, and the peace we had experienced in our own tragic stories. What this couple didn’t know is that they had just entered the igloo with one woman who only 4 days earlier had doctors tell her she had about 1 and 1/2 years left on this planet, and the other lady had lost her baby many years before. We all understood heartbreak and suffering.

For the next hour or so, under the twinkle lights of the toasty igloo, we all shared our stories. Sam and I were also able to share how our faith in Jesus Christ was able to help us get through the grief, the anger, the sadness, the loss, day by day and moment by moment. I really can’t remember all the details of the conversation, but they asked us questions, and vice versa. We all just bared our true feelings. Honestly, I felt like Jesus was sitting right there with us in the igloo and there was a sense of peace and genuine love for one another.

As our time in the igloo came to a close, the husband told us that they had not really been focusing on their faith prior to the loss of their baby. But that the pastor of the church that had performed the funeral had reached out to them in their grief. He had encouraged them to join them for a community group Bible Study, and had others from the church reach out to them. He said they had been attending church services, and the community group and were hoping to join in with some of their upcoming events. He said that his dad was a preacher and his grandfather had been a missionary in South Dakota on the reservations. He told us he had previously stepped away from his faith. He looked at us sincerely in the face and told us that this igloo meeting was not just by chance, he felt that God had brought us together to have a night of sharing. His sweet wife labeled it “a time of healing in the igloo.”

When Sam and I got back to her room, we could not stop talking about this encounter. I have no doubt God arranged that meeting for all of us. We realized what a blessing we would have missed if we hadn’t taken the time to go up to the rooftop. But we didn’t and oh what joy we found.

Do you ever wonder what “rooftop experiences” we miss because we are not available for the encounter or ready to share about how God is working in our lives? Sam and I wondered how many other appointments we might have missed in our lives because we were too busy, too wrapped up in our own problems, or too engaged on Social Media, games, etc.

This week I want you to be encouraged to look for those special moments God puts in your life. It doesn’t have to be a big experience, even though that was way cool, it can simply be a quick moment shared with a waiter/waitress, your hair stylist, a nurse or doctor, the bank teller–anyone you meet on this journey through life. Part of the challenge though includes you being ready and prepared to share. If you aren’t talking to God or getting into His word, you can’t be prepared to share His truths about life experiences.

Here’s my prayer for us all:

Lord, I ask you to open our eyes and look for opportunities to share about the hope we have in you. I ask you to open our ears to really listen to the hurts and pain of others who are struggling. I ask you to open our mouths and share the truths that we are learning from your precious Word and time spent talking with you, and I ask you to open our hearts and help us to give away the love that has been so lavishly given to us.

In Him who is Able to do Immeasurably More,

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