Thursday Night Update

Carl, posting for Jim.

Well, another day of great progress to my untrained eye.  I got to have about an hour with Jim, and Cindy was there with me for about 20 minutes.

The medications and special glasses appear to be working well for Jim.  His pain continues to decrease.  He mentioned that he has had fewer shark attacks, and those that he has had are less severe.  He is more upbeat, and more convinced that he is moving forward with a purpose in his life.  He is stronger, and is fully participating in life in the hospital.  He is feeling much less pain on a continuing basis, and life is better for him.  He believes that his time in the hospital is very helpful to him, as he had a chance to get away from stresses on the outside and "wrap himself in cotton" to rejuvenate his mental and emotional health.

Jim is on track to be discharged at noon on Tuesday.  That's his current working plan.

Jim has been unable to read because his regular glasses don't magnify the text enough for his not-so-young eyes.  Cindy stopped by the dollar store and bought some reading glasses for him, and before we left the hospital he put on the reading glasses for magnification and the prescription lenses for the fluorescent blocking, and was able to read.  This will be good for him, because as you know, he loves to read to sate his seemingly infinite curiosity.

Jim appreciated the comments that you have posted to his blog, and appreciates all the love and prayers in his behalf.  He got emotional when I read them to him, and he shared with me his love for his family and his friends.  He strongly reiterated that he believes his friends are friends for eternity, whether he sees them once or twice in his lifetime, or on a daily basis.  Thank you all for being his friends.

Jim wants all of the Cobabe extended family to learn these words:  basilar migraine syncope.  This is a syndrome that Jim has been diagnosed with.  He lived for years with recurring migraines, many of which were debilitating for several hours or a day.  He has now been properly diagnosed with this syndrome.  This syndrome is very rare, but runs in families.  If you suffer from regular migraines with aura, please search for basilar migraine syncope on Google, and see a neurologist to see if you can obtain a diagnosis and treatment.  Jim would love it if his experience could prevent suffering for those he loves.

Thanks again for your faith and prayers.

Carl

Wednesday Update

Carl again, posting for Jim.

You know, every time I post on this blog I am made acutely aware of how wonderful a writer Jim is and how poorly my writing measures up.  But, I guess it's the best you've got....

I had a meeting run late at work today, so I ended up very late getting to the hospital.  I made it only about 5 minutes before the end of visiting hours.  So I only got to spend about 10 minutes with Jim (the staff gave me an extra 5 to be nice).  Jim continues to progress.  He looked better and happier than yesterday.  He seems to be both physically and mentally stronger.  I understand that he's had some discussions with the hospital staff, and is hopeful that he'll be able to be released after the weekend if he continues to progress.

Jim is thinking about the possibility of getting into some kind of group home in Salt Lake valley, where he could be closer to his sons and have access to public transportation to help him get around.  It's an option he may want to pursue at some time in the future.

The glasses that Jim got prescribed by Dr. DeGre seem to be helping him.  His intensity and frequency of shark attacks is falling off.  I believe there are clear signs of progress for him.

I gave Jim the comments each of you left on yesterday's post.  I didn't have time to read them to him, but I did tell him who they were from.  He was pleased to receive them.  When I visit tomorrow I'll collect his responses, and make them part of my post.

Thanks to all who continue to have faith and pray in behalf of Jim.  He feels keenly the effects of your faith and prayers.

Carl

Tuesday Evening Update

This is Carl, posting for Jim

I got to visit with Jim tonight for about an hour.  I wish I had more time!  The time flew by, and I needed to leave.

For the first time, I visited with Jim in the common area instead of in his room.  He's made lots of progress since yesterday.  He's now working out how he can make the progress he needs to get out of the hospital.  His mind was sharp and lucid.  He had no shark attacks during our visit.  I'm very pleased with the progress he's making.

He doesn't want to talk with anybody on the telephone.  He's not happy speaking on the phone.

I'd love to take any messages any of you have for him in for him to read.  Just post a comment, and I'll print it out and take it in to him.

Thanks for all your love, faith, and prayers in Jim's behalf.  I know that they make a difference.

Carl

A Message to the Family -- From Dad

This is the message to the family that I promised yesterday in response to Jim's request.

Dear Family,

I do not know how may of you will read this.  I think it is important that I use this medium to speak to you.  When I talked to Jim last night I asked him if there was anything I could do for him and he requested that I talk to my family and try to stop the bitter fighting that is going on via the internet.  King Benjamin (in Mosiah 4) counseled the saints to see that their children do not fight and quarrel one with another.  This is my attempt to do so.

The role of patriarch in a family is not really well defined in the scriptures.  Just because I have lived longer than any of you does not necessarily make me any wiser than you.  I guess my authority in this regard is whatever each one of you grant to me.  I regard your faith and trust as a sacred and precious gem.  I do not take it lightly.  I have lost some sleep and spent much time in prayer and I now pray that the Lord will bless me with the words I need.

In the past few days there have been bitter thoughts and words published in family blogs.  I have to think this is grievous to the Lord and gives great comfort and joy to Satan, who is the enemy to all of us.  There have been accusations and vicious attacks from many sides.   Cruel words which can never be recalled have been spoken without regard to the consequences.  I call upon each one of you to cease and desist right now!

None of us is perfect.  This is a goal we're supposed to be striving for, but will likely not achieve in this life.  To aid us in our quest the Savior has given us some clearly defined guidelines.  I'm sorry I don't have my scriptures with me, but I will try to recall some of them.  Maybe some of you can add to my list.

1.  First of all we are supposed to love each other.  "As I have loved you, love one another." (John 14)

2.  He foreknew we would fail in our attempts to live as we should and has provided a means for us to avoid the consequences of our failure.

3.  He paid dearly in Gethsemane and on the cross for our mistakes. (D&C 19)

4.  His love for us in infinite and without any qualifications.  He grants pardon -- which only He can do.  He forgives us.  Though our sins may be as scarlet, they may be as the driven snow. (Isaiah 2)

5.  Our responsibility is to forsake our sins and repent.  He promises us if we do so He will remember our sins no more. (D&C 58)

6.  He tells us that we must forgive one another of all offenses.  He says he will forgive whom he will forgive, but we are required to forgive all men (women too). (D&C 64)

7.  His brand of forgiveness is that he forgets -- I will remember your sins no more.  He tells us that if we do not forgive in the same manner that we are guilty of a greater offense than the offender. (D&C 58, D&C 64)

8.   He tells us that we are to suspend judgement ".. let the Lord judge between me and thee." (D&C 64)

Well, I guess that's enough of that.  As I said, maybe you can add to the list.  But now I want to take another direction -- the internet.  It is a modern day miracle and can be a blessing in our lives.  So much information, so much knowledge, so much good.  Also so much trash, so much ugliness, and so much evil.  The Lord blesses us with great tools to further His designs, and Satan manages to turn these tools against us.  We must be ever watchful. 

Please, I implore you, don't use this great means to accomplish the work of the devil.  Watch carefully what you write.  Guard your children carefully.  Many of them have or will have their own computers.  Perhaps some of these precious little ones have already been exposed to pornography or other evils.  I don't know enough about it to advise you how to block it, but it is imperative that you make every effort to do so.

Please believe that I love each of you.  I pray often for all of you by name; sometimes that takes a long time.  I want you to enjoy happiness and the Lord's peace in your lives.  You are my greatest source of joy -- all of you.

Finally, I testify to you that the principles that we are taught by our Savior, and by his holy prophets, are true.  His gospel is true.  He is the Only Begotten Son of our Eternal Father.  He created the heavens and earth as a place for Father's children to grow and learn -- to become as He is -- and we can do this.  He has given us the church organization and the scriptures and ordinances and inspired prophets and leaders to help us.  And he has given us a sacred charge to nurture his children in example and precept, that they too may become more like Him.

I pray that we may all succeed in our mission in life and enjoy the eternal life that awaits those who persevere in righteousness.

Update on Jim's Status

This is Carl, posting for Jim.

We went to visit Jim at the hospital today.  I got there about 4:15, and there was a neurologist examining Jim.  I was really pleased to see how well Jim was interacting with the doctor; he was doing MUCH better than he had been only 24 hours before.

Shortly after, Mom and Dad Cobabe and Cindy (my wife) arrived.  After the doctor finished his examination, Jim asked for a bit of private time with us.  The hospital staff all left, and Jim shared with us an experience of a visitor from beyond the veil who told him it was not yet his time to go.  So Jim agreed to stay on earth and continue to endure.  I believe that it was this visitor who had made such a substantial impact on Jim's attitude and progress.

We then gave Jim a blessing.  It was a pleasure for me to assist.  Jim was promised that he would recover and that he had much to do before he leaves this earth.

We then had the chance to fill out medical history.  Cindy got to ask Jim all sorts of personal questions, and write down his answers.  Jim's vocabulary and sense of humor came through as he responded appropriately to some pretty off-the-wall questions.

We got to break the rules -- four of us got to visit when you're only allowed two, and we got to stay until 6:45 when visiting hours ended at 5:45.  I guess that was partly because we were getting his paperwork filled out, and partly because the doctor was there during part of visiting hours.  Anyway, it was great to see the progress that Jim has made.

Thanks to all of you for your faith and prayers.  I believe they are making a difference.

On our way out, Jim spent some time asking us to do all we could do to help Ruth.  Ruth, Jim loves you and wants you to know that.   He's concerned that you'll feel guilty for his problems, and that with all the attention directed to him, you might be overlooked.  Know that he loves you.

All in all, I considered it a very positive visit.  I believe that he's on his way back.

Thanks for all your love.

Update From Jim's Dad

This evening we visited with Jim for about 45 minutes.  He is in good health and in good hands.  He is doing well.

He has asked me as the patriarch of the family to write a message on his behalf, as he is not able to do it now.

I will post this message on Snail Hollow Gazette tomorrow evening, when I've been able to make it say what I want it to.

Thank you all for your love and for your continued faith and prayers.

Love,

Bill Cobabe, Sr.

Blog for Jim

This is Ruth, blogging for Jim.

It's my fault, really. I upset Jim.

I don't know what happened after I left, but now he's in the psych ward at Utah Valley Regional Hospital. I don't know anything else, because nobody will tell me anything. I have nothing to report other than that. I'm sorry.

I Delight in my Friends

Friends are like the stars. One constant in the ever-changing sky.

I had a close encounter meeting last week with a friend who typifies the constellations in my bright universe. She made a special accommodation in her busy schedule just to meet with me, I cannot explain why, but it was a dinner meeting at a Chinese restaurant. My sister and her family and another good friend came along, and the stars blazed bright. I just basked in the glow and warmth of good will and conversation that flowed like warm sunshine between us.

If every meeting with a dear close acquaintance that I have never met before could only go so well, I would certainly call for them more often, on a regular basis.

In fact, I confess, I make friends under normal circumstances with great deliberation and care, even some stubbornness and reluctance. It is generally a process that occupies many years, if not some decades. In my judgement, I am an easy person to get to know casually, but do not normally form friendship without a long and careful trial. I cannot explain -- perhaps I have been hurt too many times. Because friendship also opens serious vulnerabilities that can be exploited easily and thoughtlessly by others. Much to my discomfort and personal pain -- so I have discovered.

I have also discovered a universe of bright stars in the heavens, my good friends. I count them as such, ans they will always be there, forever shining bright in the darkness, though we may never meet again in this life. Indeed, I expect such to be the case with most of them. We had our moment of meeting, to share time and break bread. Now we get on with life, and the sweet and sacred memory of our friends sometimes shines out of the light and warmth, and the love we share, no matter how many miles or how much time may separate us.

Thank you forever, my friends!

April 2006 General Conference: As A Child

Elder Henry B. Eyring counsels that our natures must be changed to become as a child to gain the strength we must have to be safe in the times of moral peril.

For some that will not be easy to understand or to accept. Most of us want to be strong. We may well see being like a child as being weak. Most parents have wanted their children at times to be less childish. Even the Apostle Paul used these words as he was about to urge us to incorporate charity, the pure love of Christ, into our lives:

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (1 Corinthians 13:11)

But King Benjamin, who understood as well as any mortal what it meant to be a man of strength and courage, makes it clear that to be like a child is not to be childish. It is to be like the Savior, who prayed to His Father for strength to be able to do His will and then did it. Our natures must be changed to become as a child to gain the strength we must have to be safe in the times of moral peril.

Here is King Benjamin’s stirring description of what that change to become like a child is and how it comes to us:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.  (Mosiah 3:19)

We are safe on the rock which is the Savior when we have yielded in faith in Him, have responded to the Holy Spirit’s direction to keep the commandments long enough and faithfully enough that the power of the Atonement has changed our hearts. When we have, by that experience, become as a child in our capacity to love and obey, we are on the sure foundation.

From King Benjamin we learn what we can do to take us to that safe place. But remember: the things we do are the means, not the end we seek. What we do allows the Atonement of Jesus Christ to change us into what we must be. Our faith in Jesus Christ brings us to repentance and to keeping His commandments. We obey and we resist temptation by following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. In time our natures will change. We will become as a little child, obedient to God and more loving. That change, if we do all we must to keep it, will qualify us to enjoy the gifts which come through the Holy Ghost. Then we will be safe on the only sure rock.

Like you, I have felt what King Benjamin meant when he said that we could become like a little child before God. I have prayed, as you have, to know what to do when choices that I faced would have eternal consequences. Over many years I have seen a recurring pattern in the times when the answers to such a prayer have come most clearly.

Once, for instance, I prayed through the night to know what I was to choose to do in the morning. I knew that no other choice could have had a greater effect on the lives of others and on my own. I knew what choice looked most comfortable to me. I knew what outcome I wanted. But I could not see the future. I could not see which choice would lead to which outcome. So the risk of being wrong seemed too great to me.

I prayed, but for hours there seemed to be no answer. Just before dawn, a feeling came over me. More than at any time since I had been a child, I felt like one. My heart and my mind seemed to grow very quiet. There was a peace in that inner stillness.

Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself praying, “Heavenly Father, it doesn’t matter what I want. I don’t care anymore what I want. I only want that Thy will be done. That is all that I want. Please tell me what to do.”

In that moment I felt as quiet inside as I had ever felt. And the message came, and I was sure who it was from. It was clear what I was to do. I received no promise of the outcome. There was only the assurance that I was a child who had been told what path led to whatever He wanted for me.

I learned from that experience and countless repetitions that the description of the Holy Ghost as a still, small voice is real. It is poetic, but it is not poetry. Only when my heart has been still and quiet, in submission like a little child, has the Spirit been clearly audible to my heart and mind.

Why Tribulations?

I have good reason to be seeking answers.

Here are a few I have located...

And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.  (Alma 7:11-13)

If thou art called to pass through tribulation....if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters....prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb; And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, and the sentence of death passed upon thee;....if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good

The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.  (Doctrine and Covenants 122:5-8)

Disease, too, afflicts both the innocent and the culpable. It is as big a mistake to blame God for all sickness as it is to blame him for all natural disasters. It is true that some diseases occur because of sinful activities, but most people become ill simply because the mortal body is subject to natural law and is heir to pain, disease, and death.  (A. Lavar Thornock, In Your Time of Crisis)

You can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experience with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life—in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced. (Elder Jeffery R. Holland,  Lessons from Liberty Jail)