Me and the husband's bout with what we think was food poisoning...

This past weekend the husband and I went on a one day marriage retreat entitled "Elevate Your Marriage."  It was an excellent retreat...too short :-)  The morning was filled with teachings about true submission and headship within the marriage, some excellent teaching and just a scratching of the surface.

The afternoon was spent out in the woods with about twenty-one couples doing some high rope activities and low rope team building activities and it was a lot of fun.

I have a fear of heights...climbing tall ladders makes me nervous...I even feel out of balance riding an escalator and stairs with no backing, I don't like them...walking near edges where there's a drop off, I get wobbly.  I like being on the ground with my feet firmly planted.  But I do love some of the benefits of being up high...the views and the sense of freedom.  It's just the in-between part, the getting from A to B.

I looked at the high rope structures and they were high...thirty-eight feet high up in the sky high.  Of course it's not so high to the husband as he's a framer and framers can be like monkeys walking along high walls, climbing all over high pitched roofs...it's a piece of cake for him.  He encouraged me to go first.  I got strapped into my life saving gear...the stuff that would hold me if I somehow fell and was left plunging to my death or severe injuries :)

My balayer checked and double checked all my gear and of course I asked if all was okay and probably asked again and maybe a third time...when I'm nervous I get a little overly chatty and sometimes I try and tell people how to do their jobs...oops...sorry.

So I was all strung up and ready to climb, I started my climb, legs shaking, arms shaking, figuring I'd shake right off the very pole I was climbing.  Fear set in, well actually fear set in before I put one foot on that pole, but as I climbed higher my fear levels climbed higher too.  I did the dreaded looking down and yeah I was high and there was the husband and many others encouraging me, "Come on Tina, you can do it, one foot in front of the other, come on, you're doing great."  I gripped that pole and seriously thought of  going back down but I knew if I turned back I'd kick myself for not facing this fear and just doing it.  So I climbed higher and got to the place where I had to go from the pole to this tight-wire with a series of grab ropes hanging from another tight-wire above my head.  I placed one foot on that wire...scared...wondering if I could even do this.  I grabbed for the rope and placed my other foot up on the wire.  All the while that husband of mine and others are encouraging me that TINA YOU CAN DO THIS.

This is the husband up on the tight-wire, the very thing I scurried across.

There I am thirty-eight feet up in the air standing on a wire practicing my breathing exercises from when I had kids...in through the nostrils out through the mouth and repeat only this time I wasn't having any kids but pushing out that dreaded fear.  I slid across that tight-rope as fast as I could and made it to the other side hugging that pole while being congratulated by the welcoming man at the other side and now it was time for the zip-line a four hundred foot ride on a wire through the woods.

I got up on the platform while still desperately hugging the pole.  My welcoming man had me let go so he could strap me up for the zip line.  Once again as he's securing ropes and all that I'm asking are you sure that's right and are you sure this is safe and are you sure that rope shouldn't go through that loop, remember I get chatty when I'm scared and nervous and try and tell the experts how to do their job :)

TRUST...did I trust...this was all about trusting someone else with me...could I do it.

And so for me the zip line was about trust, could I close my eyes with my back towards the woods and just let myself fall.  The welcoming man asked me, "Do you trust me?"  I grabbed onto his shoulders as he had me place my feet on the edge of the platform and while looking at him he said...trust...let go...close your eyes...squat down...let yourself fall.  I did it!  And it was fun and I felt free as I zipped through the woods...I could have zipped along for another 400 feet and then some.

Here's the husband free falling, exactly what I did!

I got back down to the ground and I think I was smiling from ear to ear...I had done it, I had overcome some of this fear of mine and it felt good.  I went running to where my husband and the others were and I was cheered for facing this fear of mine and I felt so blessed...so blessed by all these people...this was community...this surely made God smile as well.

So you may be wondering what does the title of this blog have to do with this...well by Sunday evening at about the stroke of midnight the husband and I who had just finished watching a movie and eating some organic purple corn chips dipped in sour cream suddenly felt kind of weird, something was happening in these stomaches of ours and off to the washroom ran the husband.  I'll spare you the details but lets just say the purple corn chips and sour cream did not remain where they were.  No sooner was he out and I was joining in his adventure.  After my business in the washroom I joined the husband in bed and we both laughed, weird I know, we had just wrenched our guts and here we were laughing.  What was this horrible sickness and how could it have hit us both so suddenly and so fast without barely a warning.

Well we both made another visit to that washroom taking turns of couse because we were in this together...till death do us part.  During one of our reprieves suddenly an answer to prayer comes and joy fills my heart.  You see earlier this week the husband and I had received a monetary gift in the mail from a friend in Florida.  Which was a monetary gift given to her but before it even went into her purse she sensed the Lord telling her it was to go to the husband and I.  We were both speechless when we received it and weren't quite sure what to do with it.  We knew there was a special place for this money and we would just have to pray and wait to see what the Lord would reveal.  I figured we'd give it a week and if nothing came to mind it would go into my camera fund...I'm saving for a new one.

So there I am after once again having just wrenched my guts and the answer comes...it's 1:00 am Monday morning...a week has come and here's our answer.  God's timing is just perfect.  I nudge the husband..."You awake?"  His reply with a bit of groaning, "I am now."  I go on to tell him that I think I know where the money has to go.  I share with him what I've sensed and he agrees.  I say to him with joy, "This is some light in our darkness, isn't it great," as we lay there guts turning.  And there is peace in my soul...just not in this stomach of mine.  It may not be pretty but it too shall pass.

And so we figure we got sick from something we ate at our retreat...stuff happens and that's okay, it's a part of life here on this planet.  We went from elevating our marriage on Saturday to kneeling together and emptying ourselves at the great white throne and spending a day just lazing in bed together.  Of course it wasn't all pretty and I hate being sick yet in the midst of it all God answers prayers and brings joy and delight.

We serve a faithful God...

I thought this video was fitting...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EPQjXIMxv0