Good morning…
“Good morning, Sue,” she wrote recently. “I’ve been enjoying your posts about your dear friend Betty Skinner crossing over the veil into heaven. I’m very sorry for your loss and know that she meant so much to you. I always thought it was so cool that you journeyed to meet this woman who had such an impact on your life (reminds me of the thrill I had traveling to England to meet the doctor who discovered the Wilson disease drug that saved my life). It’s hard to put those encounters into words.”
“You are right,” I responded, texting her the photo above. “It is hard to put into words the enormous influence of these lifesaving friends. The day after Betty died I went to Goodwill, my favorite treasure-hunting spot, and found this short-haired angel resembling Betty. Having brought her on my retreat planning trip to Betty’s home state of Florida, this soulful symbol is the first thing I see when I wake up. But I haven’t really explored my feelings of grief, haven’t written about my sweet pixie haired angel. It is enough to sit beside her today honoring all that Betty has meant and forever will mean to me. Betty saved my life as her life story took my hand and guided me up from my own valley of depression, just like she has done for countless others. I felt compelled to meet her face to face, a gift I have given myself regularly since 2016.”
“Thanks for noticing this deep loss for me,” I texted. “It is good to wrap a few words around these important feelings. Tell me what has happened in your relationship with the lifesaving medical mentor that you had the privilege of interviewing face to face.”
“Dr. Walshe – I keep up with how he’s doing with another Wilson disease patient in the UK,” she explained. “When I interviewed him for my documentary (and still planned book!), he was 98. In 2020 he celebrated his 100th birthday and got a letter from the Queen (his goal!). He’s now 101! He doesn’t correspond through email so I haven’t been able to stay in touch.”
“I have been asked to show my documentary at the upcoming Global Genes conference and then to speak about my experience,” she went on to say. “I’m so excited to share with another audience what Dr. Walshe has done for me and so many other in saving our lives. I continue to marvel and feel so grateful that he listened to that ‘small voice’ that led him to the drug discovery. Remember, he pointed up to the sky when I asked him, ‘Where did the idea come from?'”
“I am excited that you will get to share your documentary at the Global Genes conference,” I concluded. “Do you remember sitting on your back porch wondering why you were left off the team of leaders at the earlier Wilson disease conference? Together, we were baffled at you being ‘uninvited’ as a speaker a few years back. But it seems God had bigger plans and I am so excited to hear about your documentary being shown on a larger stage. God is so amazingly collaborative, interconnecting, and bonding beyond our wildest dreams! The key is to stay in our lane each day – discerning “What is MINE to do, to say, to care about, morning after morning.”
“I love you and our God-ordained, forever friendship!” I typed my final text.
“Thank you for reminding me about being ‘uninvited’!!!” she replied. “I really did feel hurt and baffled. And yes, now very excited about this unexpected opportunity. How wise you are to remind us to stay in our lane and wait on God, His plans and His timing. How we need divine wisdom to help us discern. I love our God-ordained friendship too.”
“To think of how Betty and Dr. Walshe were obedient to the call, and to the still small voice of God, to write a book and follow a hunch about a potential treatment. Both have saved countless lives,” she concluded. “Isn’t it an honor and privilege to share with others what these two people have done? I love how you will continue to honor Betty’s legacy. Because of COVID your Awake To Wholeness Women’s Retreat was cancelled last year, but the rescheduled one will be even more powerful!”
I am writing all this to you, hoping…you will know how one ought to behave as a member of God’s family—the assembly of the living God, the pillar and foundation that support the truth— and I think you will agree that the mystery of godliness is great:
He (God) was revealed in the flesh,
proven right in the Spirit;
He was seen by the heavenly messengers,
preached to outsider nations.
He was believed in the world,
taken up to the heavens in glory ((1 Timothy 3:14-16, VOICE).
Stretching open the veil between heaven and earth, our Lord now lives through lifesaving friends, expanding the Spirit’s healing mystery throughout our global village. We are empowered to stay in our own lane as we continue to ask, “God, what is MINE to do, MINE to say, MINE to care about today?”
…Sue…
P.S. Please enjoy the gentle voice of God speaking through Rhonda Rowland, my gifted friend whose life was saved at age twenty-one by the drug founded by Dr. Walshe.
