We enjoyed some well-deserved time off this week. It is a beautiful summer here in Western New York, and the weather has been beyond excellent. Some say we are in a drought, but drought here is never as challenging as one might see in Arizona or California.

I had worked Monday and Tuesday and had a good check up with oncology on Tuesday (one month post Acalabrutinib treatment for my CLL) so we chose Wednesday for an all day trip.

During this Covid-mess, my husband purchased a very nice drone with the money he usually would have used to eat lunch out. We have been working from home since mid-March so we are saving a lot of money on gas and restaurant food. And it tuns out that a high-quality hobby drone is the perfect Corona-Virus activity! We are enjoying taking the “Droney” on adventures.

We took our time driving about two hours east and south of where we live to a place where there are three state parks abounding with God’s natural beauty.

Since our two hour trip took us three hours, we were only able to visit one of the parks, but it is an amazing display of water, earth, and rock that goes on for about two miles. Down. Which means you must save your energy for coming back up the gorge. Lately with this medication I am on and the heat of the summer, my energy fails me. Nevertheless, I did it! I wasn’t sure I was going to make it at some points…

Which reminds me of times in my life where it feels like it is just one disappointment after another. Going down, down, down.

I have been in the depths of despair. Tossed on the ocean without a life vest. No land in sight for miles upon miles. Surely you have been there! No friends or family to comfort you. No apparent solution to your pain. The problem defies all logic…

All alone.

What did you do? Turn to a substance to numb your pain? Something to help you forget? But it just comes crashing back, stronger than before. And now you are really in a vicious cycle…you are addicted to the substance yet it no longer offers escape…it just…destroys…

Did you know that over 20 million Americans are addicted to drugs or alcohol, or BOTH? And many are just trying to cover it up…

The reality is we are stuck, and we cannot get out without help. We need to cry out to our Creator. He knows the type of clay we are wallowing in. In fact, He made the clay and He made you too. No one else can help.

Psalm 40:1 & 2 says: I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay…

And set my feet upon a rock!

At one point during our hike on Wednesday, my husband set the drone in the middle of the gorge over the water, and set it to “follow him”. And the video as we trudged back up all those exhausting stairs is fantastic.

Majestic.

Sometimes I couldn’t see the drone because of tree branches or sunlight. But it was there, hovering overhead.

God is like that. He is above us watching us like a bird watches the babies in the nest from high up in the neighboring tree, like a bear mom watches her cubs play. He takes the roaring river and makes it look like a trickle.

The view from above is broader than anything we can see. In fact, God sees the beginning to the end of the situation. He knew about it even before we tripped and fell into that slime pit.

A new member of blood cancer uncensored recently wrote about her trip to CLL bizarro land .. that feeling of confusion, panic, and fear that surely we all had when we were first diagnosed with cancer. What was mine? I took apricot seeds after I was diagnosed which probably earned me a ticket to a one night stay in the hospital!

But once we surrender our fear to the One who made heaven and earth, He wipes our tears, pulls us up from the quick sand, and sets us firmly on the Rock, who is Jesus. From that point on, He is calling all the shots. We still make decisions regarding our lives, but He is like our trusted parent, doctor, professor, boss (you name it)–we run everything past Him, knowing that His wisdom is perfect and pure.

Are you still questioning this? Struggling with your faith? Relax, we all do.

We are only human, after all.

But why are we so busy trying to intellectualize things, solve the problem, make others respect us more? How about we all take a moment to stop and listen? Listen to the whisper of the wind in the trees.

Can you hear it? It is the voice of God, calling out to you…