I started a program today of trying to gain some more progress with my Parkinson’s using biofeedback. It was very interesting today sitting in a chair with electrodes stuck all over my head watching all these brain waves on a big screen that were coming from my brain. It was even more interesting to see how it all changed when I moved my leg or arm or had one of my Parkinson tremors take place. The fellow I am working with was super nice and seemed very excited about working with me and helping me. This method of dealing with Parkinson’s is brand new and I am being somewhat of a Guinea Pig in this study that I am now a part of. It was quite fascinating listening to the Neurologist explain how my brain worked and see the evidence of it working on the big screen. I thought of the verse in Psalms 139 that says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made by God”

I don’t do very much any more by myself. Life is all about relationships, and relationships are built stronger by time together. I get God’s Grace through others as I spend time with them, and others get God’s Grace from me when I spend time with them. That principle comes right from the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit together, one in essence and purpose, but still three personalities. We are created in God’s image and likeness so together with others is good. Humility is recognizing that I need others to succeed and be truly happy, and pride is saying I can do it by myself.

I wish that I had learned this principle earlier in my life. I spent so much time doing things by myself because I thought I would recover from my weariness from preaching quicker, and that is what I did for years, isolate myself. Now I recognize the truth about myself and how God’s principles really work.

By the way, several have asked about going with me up Mt Adams and my answer is yeh! You can do the Saturday one day climb or you can join me as I climb the mountains in two days.

The goal is to climb Mt Adams on August 8th this year. I climbed it for the first time way back in the summer 1965. Since then I climbed it just about every year up until 2012, and I have not climbed it since. That last time I climbed it was very difficult for me with my Parkinson’s being a big issue, and I decided that I was done climbing. I am not sure why I decided to give it a shot again this year other than stupidity based on forgetting all the issue the last time I climbed. I am going to try something this year that I have never done, and vowed as a young climber that I would never do. I am going to start climbing on Friday instead of Saturday and camp overnight at what is called the “Lunch Counter”, a flat spot about half way up the mountain where there isn’t usually any snow because it all gets blown off. It will require climbing with a back pack with a tent, a warm sleeping bag, some food and water, setting up a little camp, hoping not to freeze to death in the night, finishing the climb on Saturday morning, then breaking camp and coming down. The reason is to give myself more time to climb up and come down than one day allows, also to help get adjusted to the altitude by camping at 10,000 feet. As I said, I have never done this before thinking it wasn’t necessary for real climbers who could easily do it in one day without the hassle of packing up a bunch of stuff on your back then packing it back. The biggest negative is that it gets very cold on Mt Adams at night at 10,000 feet, at least that is what I am told. We will see. It should make for a good blog post anyway.

My Dad used to say, “just because you get old doesn’t mean you get wise, there are a lot of old fools running around”. There are 5 areas in my life in which I am terribly discontent, and one of those areas is the level of wisdom that I have, I want so much more than I have. Wisdom is knowing what to do and say in any situation, those words and actions that are most pleasing to God. Every morning I pray and ask God to give me more wisdom, “Dear Lord, please give me Your wisdom today so that I will know what to do and say in every situation, so that my life today pleases you, glorifies You, and I bear much fruit that is eternal. I pray that prayer every morning, but He isn’t just going to pour wisdom into my head like filling up a salt shaker, but what He will do is bring people into my life who are wiser than I am and who will share their wisdom with me if I am humble enough to ask for it.

Proverbs 1:3-5 To receive instruction in wise behavior,
A wise man will hear and increase in learning,
And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

A lot of people my age stop seeking wisdom because they think they are wise enough, after all they are 71 years old. Solomon as a young man was the wisest man alive because he sought it diligently. He wrote the book of Proverbs as a wise young man. Then his heart became proud and he soon lost all the wisdom that he had, and as an old fool he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, “all is vanity”. It doesn’t seem reasonable that wisest man to ever live would die an old fool, but that is exactly what happened.

Much of our married life was devoted to raising our 8 kids. Our goal and desire was that they would be champions for Jesus, and that they would not cool off in their walk with Christ and backslide. Another major desire and goal was that they would all marry a spouse at least as devoted to following and serving the Lord as they were? A verse that is one on my life verses now at this stage in my life is

3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.

This last week Patty and went to Twin Falls, Idaho and visited our son Seth and his new bride Amie and their 4 kids. Amie’s husband was killed while riding a bicycle and hit by a car, and she has managed her life and raised her kids by herself for several years, and Seth, the last of our 8 kids to get married, was 35 years old and pretty set in his ways of doing things, so I wondered how they would adjust and do in their marriage. I anticipated that there would be some significant struggles as they adjusted to living together. We had a wonderful time with them and we both enjoyed getting to know our new grandkids a bit better.

We have 8 kids, 6 son-in-laws, 2 daughter-in-laws, and 27 grandchildren. So far all of them are walking with the Lord and their marriages are doing well. In our day and age that is a major miracle, and as the verse says,

3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.