His yoke is easy!

I promised to tell you how yesterday went after I blogged about the yoke and burden of Jesus. It went well.

I fitted in all I needed to, and a bit more besides. This was an emergency visit to the dentist as I was getting pain in my lower right gums. Turns out there's an infected ulcer there and I have to take a week's course of antibiotics. I go off one medication and straight onto another!

But it was a good day. I didn't use a to-do list but I yoked myself to Jesus and he helped me pull my burden. I would remember about things and do them at just the right time. And decide to do things on the spur of the moment.

This was to go to the Library and find out about the life of a distant lady relative whose christening mug I rescued from an auction in Liverpool on Thursday. The mug told me her name Alma Fairmann and the date of her birth 1st April 1856.

Using ancestry.com I found out that she was born in Cramlington, Northumberland and lived later in Earsdon, near Whitley Bay until her father died in 1890. Then she and her mother moved to Hamilton, Lanarkshire to live with Alma's sister Agnes who had married my great-grandfather John McCabe.
There she served as house keeper. After that I lost her.

What an amazing thing the internet is. Before it came along finding out that information would have taken weeks of research, letter writing, interviews and some fruitless escapades to the North East and Glasgow no doubt. This took me an hour at the Library. How times change.

O, and in the night I got up and wrote an article for The Sun.

Up and down, up and down.

Here's some information you may not know. The Americans call a see-saw a teeter-totter. And that's what my life feels like at the moment.

Just like the man in the picture it goes up and down, up and down...

Up I go in spiritual ways, when I meet with God and He changes everything. Like a couple of days ago when I got a book called Feeling Good from my friend Mary in Tasmania. It has great ideas in it for depressed people. I hope and pray that I will put them into action.

And things are looking up in family ways too. Emma celebrated her 21st birthday in style over the weekend. She was ably assisted by her mother who helped in all sorts of practical ways (as she always does). Audrey was supposed to be in France with a prayer team but she stayed here. I was not happy when she decided that, but she was right after all.

Matthew has jumped out of his depression and is busy climbing mountains and applying for jobs. What an amazing, miraculous change. Thank you Lord!

Nathan started at Kendal College today. I took him to catch the bus at the Community Centre at 7.30 a.m. and then went on to pray at IMC. I get a real buzz out of that.

Down I go physically and mentally. By 9.00 a.m. I was suffering from the usual headache, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound. The only answer to this is to lie on the settee. Peter Capstick rang up as I was doing so and suggested I walk it off.

Then Audrey came in and I pointed out "It's a lovely day out there." (We British love to talk about the weather, you know.) And straight away she said "Let's go for a walk then." So what could I do but go along with her?

It worked. It brought me back up again. Not as far as when I got up but a long way up from where I was, thank God.

So the journey of finding my way home has many ups and downs, like a see-saw, or teeter-totter.