Covid-19 Preparing for what if and reducing stress

Time to reduce stress

It is hard not to think about coronavirus. News about it is everywhere. I am just like many of you trying to get practical information to decrease the chances of getting sick and if I or a loved one get sick with the virus how can I care for myself or someone else to survive. Being a senior citizen this is critical to know what are the challenges.
Below I share links to Mayo, CDC, Harvard Medical and My local state. These sites have good information we need to fight this virus.







According to the CDC, the symptoms are in serious cases:

If you develop emergency warning signs for COVID-19 get medical attention immediately. Emergency warning signs include*:

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
• New confusion or inability to arouse
• Bluish lips or face

*This list is not all-inclusive. Please consult your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning

Harvard lists:

What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

Some people infected with the virus have no symptoms. When the virus does cause symptoms, common ones include low-grade fever, body aches, coughing, nasal congestion, runny nose, and sore throat. However, COVID-19 can occasionally cause more severe symptoms like high fever, severe cough, and shortness of breath, which often indicates pneumonia.

Right now any symptoms you experience contact your health care provider. Whether at home or treated in a hospital that will be between you and your healthcare provider. Keep in mind I am just like you. I am not a doctor and I don't plan to diagnose or treat my self. If I get symptoms I am going to call my doctor. 

According to Mayo clinic care at home will be managing the symptoms like we do with the flu. 

Currently, no antiviral medication is recommended to treat COVID-19. Treatment is directed at relieving symptoms and may include:

• Pain relievers (ibuprofen or acetaminophen)
• Cough syrup or medication
• Rest
• Fluid intake

Learning how to treat the virus may help in preventing it from getting serious. But if we get more serious symptoms then again call your healthcare provider.
Mayo had very good information to lower your stress over the coverage of the virus which in turn helps you better fight the virus. Since the media lives off this crisis like a shark in the water, limit yourself from their hyping things up.  Reducing time spent helping their ratings to activities you enjoy will reduce news stress.
Covid-19 is more serious than the flu, but we can fight it and give ourselves the best chance to get through this. Keep walking
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20479976
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/prevention.html
coronavirus-resource-center
http://dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/diseases-and-conditions/diseases-a-z-list/coronavirus

AddThis Social Bookmarking Sharing Button Widget

 Sharing AddThis Social Bookmarking Sharing Button Widget

Reached 100,000 Hits

My journey is an ongoing series of adjustments. I went from walking to biking to prevent falling because of my Cerebral palsy and now I am walking short walks to improve my ability to balance and walk.

I haven't been writing a lot lately but people continue to visit the blog and find posts to read. In the Fatman walking, I explore what I have discovered that helps to keep moving and keep my health up as I age.
There are four basic enemies that can cut our lives short heart disease and cardiovascular disease, strokes are part of this; cancer, diabetes, and I have added dementia.
As we age there are other issues we face, but these four are on top of the list.
Being a Fatman obesity is a battle. With aging our metabolism slows down and our health may bring mobility problems that make weight even more difficult to manage. I have seen research on how our body resists our efforts to lose weight.
In my blog, I have been open to mental health issues of dealing with depression, insomnia, anxiety and later post-traumatic stress. These things are in remission and I am happy to report this old man isn't living a grumpy, blue life unable to sleep.
Biking, resistant training, flexibility, shadow boxing all play a part in fitness.

Walking the dog is an
easy 1-mile walk at the
end of the day

I have shared my spiritual journey, I hope in a positive way. In the present moment, there are great hostilities concerning the faith. Too many view expression of faith as a fanatical, negative perspective that is not healthy or balanced at all. I hope to encourage a closer look.
I have shared the stories of people who have lived long lives and why they were able.
My perspective is not from a health expert, but a fat old man. I hope it encourages you to keep walking. Thank you for hitting my blog 100,000 times.

You need a good road to heaven

You need a good road to Heaven

Barb and I are walking a good trail

If you want to begin a walk with God, it starts by faith with knowing Christ as your Savior. Has anyone ever shown you from the Bible how you can know God through Jesus Christ and know for sure you are going to heaven? May I show you?
What do you want to read first the good news or the bad news? You can scroll down to the heading you like to read first.
The bad news:
The Bible tells us “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23 We have all done things wrong. The 6 of the 10 commandments deal with human behavior show us what we need to know. We have all lied, stole, disobeyed our parents, hated, had sexual thoughts toward
others we shouldn’t have, coveted others belongings or relationships.
You may argue one area but we have all done

Bad roads are very
difficult to travel.
A bad road to
heaven won’t get
you there

something
wrong.
Because of our sin, we don’t meet God’s standards for entrance into His Heaven. We fall short. If you and I wanted to throw a rock to South America from Liberia, I think you could

throw farther than me. But both of our throws would come up short of hitting South America. It is even a greater problem of going to heaven. We can’t get there on our own. Every funeral shows us that as we look at the body of a loved one.
In Romans 6:23 the Bible tells us in Romans 6:23a, “For the wages of sin is death,” A wage is something we earn and because of our sins we earn death. Death comes to us all. In any culture and at any time you would have to agree that is bad news.


The good news:
Staying in the book of Romans we read in 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus died on the cross for you and I. He took on Himself our sins and paid the penalty for our sins. If

The Gospel is a good road to heaven.

When I was a young man, I was a missionary,
Pastor, Teacher in Grand Bassa.

you were dying of cancer and someone took that cancer in their body where you were free from it that would be good news for you and your family. Well, that is what Jesus did for us.Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He (God) made him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (Jesus). It certainly shows God’s love.

Ephesians 2:8, 9 tell us more of the good news. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

The Gospel is a good road to heaven.

We have to trust in Jesus to save us from sin and its wage of death. We cannot do it ourselves. When we die we are helpless we can’t move. Only God can take us to heaven. The shell is left to this earth until the time God raises the body and gives it life. Until then our soul and spirit go to heaven.
We express that trust in the Savior by prayer. Romans 10:13 says, “For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Call on God to save you and He will. Now you can begin your walk with God.

My friend Moses and his son working hard to harvest cassava.

Life can be hard to earn a living providing food and shelter for your family. Knowing God by believing His Gospel starts us on a new journey of faith. Heaven is sure, listening and reading God’s word will help us discover truths to live by that are good for us. Our burdens and cares will continue but now there is a change. God will see you through the “shadow of death.” Along with the way blessings and God’s care will happen.
Contact me, Rev. Bill Reeves Jr. at bbbbsa@sbcglobal.net I would love to hear from you.

Overcoming the mountain of "the Black dog"

Winston Churchill describes the depression that he experienced calling it by the name “the black dog”. Charles Swindoll writing about this Psalm referred to the experience David had as what his father had called being “under the pile”. Some refer to it as interpreting life “seeing blue”. Sometimes when we experience long-term stress it gets to us.

At a time like this, it is no time to study the book of Job, look at dark things or even difficult questions. Sometimes we still have to bugger on. Churchill could not postpone WW2. Abraham Lincoln suffering depression had to carry on to save the union. And here in Psalm 13, David had to find hope to carry-on in a 12-year struggle of survival against the threat of death by Saul. 

Long-term stress can take its toll.

How do we get through it?

Psalm 13 just being six verses (see picture) can be very helpful. Psalm 13 we described as a lament Psalm. This type of psalm fits well with the picture of a mountain. At the base of a mountain is the emotional outcry of feelings we find hard to express. It is good that we have someone we can actually share these things with. Because I see people in the Bible expressing them to God is a great encouragement. God is someone we can always share our feelings. We cannot always act our feelings where they would be harmful to us or to others, we can share them with God. Look carefully at the "how longs" in verses one and two. 

Ps. 13 Overcoming "the Black Dog"

From our perspective, we may feel these things but eventually, we're going to have to confront them. Does God forget us? Does he hide his face from us? Note verse two painful thinking comes from within ourselves. Our state of mind is not how God sees things. 12 years David has been harassed by King Saul to the point of death. That is a very long time but soon David will not only survive but triumph over his enemies. Hard to see that in the struggle.

We discover in these lament Psalms a point where the difficult feelings turn to prayer and off for a rational prayer request. We saw that in verse three. David wants light=life to be restored in his life. He needs God to heal him. (Psalm 23:3)

In verse five we see the next necessary step in the healing process as we focus on God's faithful love and deliverance (for David from Saul) for us the mountain of "the black dog." Confronting the lies of depression always begins with some truth that contradicts the depression. Hope begins to grow. 

As their depression lifts, we see the mountain of the black dog thrown into the sea. If you look at Mark 11:22 the mountain Jesus was referring to was the Mount of Olives. Now you can stand in front of that mountain with the loudspeaker and you will never see the mountain thrown into the sea. We know the mountain will be there until Jesus comes back. The mountain that Jesus is referring to is the significant obstacle that we face that causes us to cry out with strong emotional language. 

Finally, as we look back we see how Lord was with us. Note David saw God’s care as being very generous. Whatever the mountain we face it is good to know that God wants us to experience life being blessed. Looking back how did we get through it? We see the Lord as being there.

We all suffer loss and face disappointments, God wants to hear us. We start at the base of the mountain as we begin our climb to prayer, faith through the darkness to life. Keep walking

Urgent prayer and other matters if we face a violent attack

I had been reading and meditating on Psalm 59. In verses 4 and 5, David is asking God to rouse Himself and wake up to move with urgency to protect David from assassins. King Saul had seen some bad hombre, agents, to kill David. The setting for this prayer is given to us in 1 Samuel 19:11-18. David's bluntness in talking to God intrigues me.  This is an epigrammatic psalm which means it is concise, clever and amusing style. The Psalm is a planned composition from beginning to end. His purpose is to teach people that God does hear and will punish wicked people who live and do evil as if God doesn't exist. Sounds like news in the daily paper, doesn't it.  In verse 7 these assassins respond, "Who hears?" David's overacting with awake and arouse are part of the epigram in which God laughs, vs. 8
Our experience we may ask God to wake up, we may feel He delays action but we can rely on the truth in Ps. 121:2-7
2 My help comes from the Lord,

Whether off the back of a bench
Using a tree can be used for starters.

Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel 
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper; 
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
David's plan that night was to be lowered from a window in the darkness and use his stealth and speed to run away to safety. He was keenly aware of the danger and made a military analysis of his foes. Ps. 59, 1-3; 4a, 6,7, 121, 14, 15.
In light of David's ability to be aware of the danger and know when to run or when to confront evil got me thinking about our strategies to deal with those who may want to harm us. Bear Grylls advise on survival is to make the best plan you can and give it 100% and continue to work at it. We may lack his skill set and training but each of us could be aware of our strengths and weaknesses and plan something that gives us the best chance to survive.

Or a harder push-up off the seat
These are good ways to increase
body strength to assist your self-defense 

(In your own security plan think it through. My ideas may get you thinking, but there are certainly better ones out there. so think it through.) Note David’s plans for security involved escapes, running, fleeing, guile, retreating to well defensible positions, hiding, and at times confronting his opposition. We too should wisely see our options. 

See danger ahead move away from it. Evil out to harm you seek shelter and refuge. Abuse comes to mind. 

In your home secure windows and obtain strong doors and locks. Have your phone ready and you know danger lurks call as soon as you can 911. Take self-defense class and do 20 pushups. Always be aware of parking lots or walking. Walk with a friend. 

Staying in abuse or visiting dangerous places is not wise. 

Whatever tools you may use to survive a violent attack know how to use them legally and with skill. David used all these strategies and he still had to pray for God’s safety. We cannot presume and ignore danger singles. But we know God is key to our protection. Prayer is one of the weapons confronting evil, but if the bad guy is coming in then we have to flight or fight. If we choose non-violence then we have to be prepared for the consequences. Giving up may help us survive. Or it could be the worse thing to do. 

 Awareness, preparation, and moving away from danger the best options. Danger usually comes in ambush.

David’s praying is not easily deduced from 1 Samuel  19:11-18. Prayers in danger are usually short and to the point. Keep walking

May be a recumbapnt Is for you

 Just a simple noate my  recumbent bike has really been a blessing this week. I have done different types of biking and each one gets started pumping and help circulate the blood. With Barb doing physical therapy some of the moves I need Needed to do to help my joint health it was a good review. Barb is making progress and I am doing the same with my spin class and intermediate workouts. The rip come and bike is so useful to bike a couple miles and vary the resistance pushing a blood pressure breathing harder and making some serious distance. Doing 20 minutes 30 minutes is like walking the dog at night and really helps blood sugar. I do some stretching and strength training and I’m sleeping like a baby. My compression socks also bring Greg comfort and care to my feet. Wearing shoes is a good thing. Getting out with my family and social outings with my bike or scooter is lotta fun If you were having a hard enough time moving around invest in a $200 recumbentIt will be well worth the cost. Have fun