"Hazon" means vision, but it is also the name of the last book of Bible, which people know as Revelation. (no S)
I am not talking about 'The Revelation of Jesus Christ" here today, but a revelation that I got from Jesus, answering one of those burning questions we all have.
The problem I have noticed for most of my life, at least the last 20 years, is a pattern of high and low times. It almost feels like cursed times and blessed times.
There is a pattern.* Everything in life gets really rough and almost impossible to tolerate, no solution or fix in sight. It feels like everything is failing at once, or at least coinciding to build on the other bad things that are happening. Then, as soon as those aspects are getting resolved, I get a huge blessing.
That pattern has come in the form of paychecks being the blessing after a period where I cannot make ends meet, then payday is delayed, coincidentally at the same time I am borrowing to stay afloat. Each day is excruciating - then I get paid on the 15th of the month - very late. The pay is the blessing? Why? I earned it so it should just be a normal part of the month. This example is the exception rather than the rule.
This problem or pattern also comes in the form of long delays in projects that are critical over the course of months or even years, culminating in the resolution, then the blessing.
The above is and example of something short lived, a rough patch. I found that if I held on to money and made sure I was prepared for a late pay check, it would never be late. The month that I was short, my pay would be late.
Now let's talk about one that has gone on for nearly three months. It is a health issue with corresponding failures in life's normal safeguards. I will get back to the spiritual answer that relates to hard times at the end.
The most recent difficulty was crippling high blood pressure over the last two and a half months. Coincidentally, I had a gap in my health insurance, which had to be resolved before I go to see a doctor. I also wanted to avoid being admitted to a hospital (all would be out of pocket).
No matter what I did, my blood pressure stayed above 170/110.
I quit coffee, drank water all day, had zero salt, none.
Exercising, walks, the whole ball of wax.
In the beginning of all this, my friends and family were saying, "Why don't you go to the doctor?"
"I know a doctor."
"You can go to a doctor."
"You should go to a doctor."
They sounded like parrots. They act like this man in a butcher's coat will wave a magic wand and cure me.
The truth is that I have not needed a doctor in over ten years, and I can usually take care of myself by going to bed when I'm sick and using vitamin C and natural antibiotics like onion or garlic to get better.
But I did break down and see a doctor on the sly (in order to keep from having any pre-existing conditions on my new health policy). I got there and showed him a bit of history - my BP readings and the history you see above. He was talking to AI and listening to its response while I sat there at his desk. A nice man. We had a good talk, AI filling most of his side of the conversation.
Before I left, I asked if he was going to take my blood pressure and asked if he could change my medicine because weeks of taking it had no impact on the hyperness of my tension. He did both, I bought the new pills, no reduction.
The above was about a month ago now. All of the sudden, all of the parrots had brrm coming up to me in order to hear that the doctor made me better, "You're feeling better, huh?"
I wasn't. I let each one of them know that nothing has changed, that my blood pressure is still really high. "He changed my meds and they are not working either." was my response to them.
In my entire life I have not met a doctor who has a magic wand. About 50% of the time, I find the problem myself while under the doctor's care. This may be one of those times.
Weeks later, a couple of days ago, I went to my Pharmacist. I have had one of those for the last 20 years. He lets me buy anything that I need with no doctor's orders. I asked what he would recommend as he was taking my blood pressure (no need to ask him to do that).
He had some pills that have two components. One to lower the BP and the other to make you pee a lot. This guy hears from the public and knows what works and what doesn't. He has face to face feedback sources.
I am only 4 days / 4 pills into this new attempt to get my blood pressure down. The results are positive so far, though the new pills are not my only attempt. More on that in a bit. My lowest pressure was 118/80 , a low I never hit at any point in the last 10 weeks. The highest was 152/93 - so I am out of danger.
My BP is lower, yes. But I will let it stabilize before I start narrowing down what the cause was. I log everything when I am trying to find the cause of an issue; my BP throughout the day, everything I eat and what tie I ate it. While on the old meds, I wanted to eliminate foods. The fastest way to eliminate food, as a cause, is to eliminate it as a factor.
So I did a 48 hour fast. Toward the end of it, the blood pressure went down around 140/110. I really thought I was onto something. This is a clue. I could not maintain a fast to control my BP.
At the time I could not say for sure that the fast was what brought down my blood pressure because I was on my second type of anti-hypertensive drug - I now know that the medications did not help at any point before the present time.
As I started eating again, up went the blood pressure. I have been in a hurry to get it down. I know that I try too many things all at once. The idea is to get it down, keep it stable, then introduce one old habit at a time until one of them causes the pressure to rise. For now, I am taking the new meds pictured above and eating normally with no salt or coffee in my diet.
It is as if everything related to health was conspiring to fail at the same time, my old insurance, my health, one pill, another pill, etc. Now, I am getting the right insurance, the right pills (fingers crossed), etc.
My insurance is approved and I am already making payment so if anything happens, I can go to the hospital.
I found a doctor on instagram who suggests getting five tests that he has seen affecting blood pressure before committing to BP Meds for life, including
Primary Oldosteronism is the cause of 10% of hypertension cases.
Cordisol. If BP is high in the morning stress is the cause. My morning readings have been high. I know that because I have meticulously logged all readings.
Hyper and Hypo-thyroidism both can cause high blood pressure.
I have always had sleep difficulties due to odd hours at work.
Sleep Amnea is a driver for high blood pressure.
CRP says a lot about inflammation markers.
I found another nutritionist talking about these issues thank God for the algo-steering more over to me. She talked about "insulin resistance" - in short she talked about people who eat too often which causes a constant flood of insulin to be in the bloodstream. This one hit me because I am an obsessive snacker. I became a snacker when I was quitting cigarettes. Snacking works for getting rid of the smoking habit, but it may be a contributor to hypertension.
My plan? Get stable - then get the five tests mentioned above. Then cut out snacking between meals, that sixth one above.
All of that while not putting myself in danger. I can go to the doctor and mention the above tests and ask him to order them.
I am not sure how long I will be fighting this situation, but I do know why such things happen. All sorts of rought times.
God has answered many, many prayers to my satisfaction. These kinds of problems and their source has been on my prayer list forever.
First I will tell you how I know it is God answering me. I was on a more trustworthy video platform thatn Yougube and I saw an interesting thumbnail. Not sure why I clicked it but I did and I liked the message. Follow.
The next day, I got out of morning prayers and reading. I am in Mark reading the transfiguration story in Hebrew - with three decuples witnessing it. There was this same cowboy, who has a morning show and I started listening. He was talking about what I had just read. He covered the blessing of seeing Jesus' form - glorified as it is in the Malchoot (Kingdom) and then they must got from that pleasant situation to the valley - where there are people who want to trick and even kill Yeshua (Jesus). There is that contrast - Lesson 1
They were told not to tell anyone what they had seen. Why? Because there are people that would rally around the King of Kings and try to make him ruler. Those people had the wrong expectations. "Do not feed delusions of grandeur." is the message there
Not God's plan. He was there to become the sacrificial Lamb of God and fulfill all of the prophecies. It was his job to go through a really, really rough time because it was God's plan. And God had similar plans for the three that were with him. They were training for that time - Lesson 2
They went from the work in the valley to the blessing at the top of the mountain - so spectacular that they wanted to build sukkot (tabernacles) and stay there. Returning to the valley below is where they had to go. You cannot stay on the blissful path - Lesson 3
There is more that I felt in my spirit as this cluster of coincidences converged at my computer the other morning. I guess the last lesson I felt was that I should pray about my expectations. Try to look for God's plan and how my circumstances might be used by Him. He wants me right where I am.
This is not preached when donations are low. At times, I am assuming that he wants me to be spared from trouble. Why would he do that? He did not spare his only beloved Son. I must adjust my expectations.
