January 25, 2026 - Update

     I know that it has been several weeks since I have written a blog.  I have said all along that I would write only when the Spirit moved me and I felt that there was some value in writing.
 
     The Spirit moved me.  It has nothing to do with the weather, though that might be a good theme.  Somehow, we haven’t gotten one of the 10th worst snowfalls in the last 100 years as was predicted.
 
     I had my three-month myeloma check-up on Friday.  The blood work test results came back as hoped.  All the “counters” for my myeloma came back in the good range.  I am released for another three months.  That was very good news.
 
     As I walked out of the doctor's office and headed to the valet parking, I noticed a young couple waiting for the attendant to bring their transportation.
 
     I don’t know if the young man was her husband, her brother, or a friend.  By the way that he held her, I took him to be her husband.
 
     She couldn’t have been more than 30.  It was cold on Friday and she was wearing an overcoat and a hat.  If she had hair, it was stuffed under the hat.  I couldn’t tell and surely didn’t want to get close enough to tell.
 
     She was so weak that the young man had his arm around her to hold her up and to help her get to and into their pickup truck.
 
     My heart went out to her and I prayed for her then and have since. I ask you to pray for her, too.
 
     She is another in a long line of patients I have encountered over the last three years in the Cancer Center.  Like so many others, this young woman was in far worse shape than I am.  And so I wonder.
 
     Last Sunday’s sermon was on the 10 lepers who were healed by Jesus.  Only one of them returned to thank Jesus and he was a Samaritan.
 
     When the healed Samaritan came back to Jesus, the text says that he did three things: He praised God, fell at Jesus’ feet, and thanked Him.
 
     Last Sunday I considered asking everyone who was physically able to do so to do those three things as a closing invitation.  After some prayerful thought, embarrassment has never been my intention, so I asked people at some point last Sunday or during the week, to find some place and some time that they could do those three things.
 
     I did as I had asked others to do.  After getting the good news, I knelt on the floor in the basement with my face to the ground like the Samaritan had done.  I gave praise to God and I thanked Him.  It was the least that I could do.
 
     There is something that often happens when we respond to God by a special physical posture that doesn’t happen when we are sitting or standing. 
 
     When you fall face down, not just kneeling, but face down before Jesus, it moves your heart and soul.  It is an act of yielding to His authority in your life.
 
     The same thing is true when you lift your hands in praise to God.  Something happens in your heart when you unashamedly offer praise to Him.  Your heart is moved and your faith is strengthened.
 
     Try it.  You may be surprised.