Lifestyle

I just love that the lectionary has Psalm 118 as the psalm for Easter Sunday. This psalm is a song of victory. The psalmist begins and ends this 29-verse psalm with “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!” The psalmist gives us many scenarios. When distressed the psalmist cries out and writes, “The Lord is on my side to help me” (verse 7a). When the nations had surrounded the psalmist and he was in fear, he writes, “I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation” (verses 13-14). And after more accounts of God’s salvation, the psalmist writes, “I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (verses 21-24).

Even though I was unable to attend the Montevideo Area Memory Loss Network (MAMLN) event in person, I understand that the event was a great success – despite the weather!

The Oxford Languages dictionary defines distress as extreme anxiety, sorrow, or pain. This week as we lead into Palm (or Passion) Sunday, and then Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and finally Easter Sunday I seem to always find myself in distress. I know why.

I’ve always found it interesting that the Apostle Paul never tells his “conversion story.” We know how it happened, because Luke wrote it in Acts. Luke tells us when the severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, the apostles were out spreading the Good News of Christ, and Paul was searching for ways to bring the believers of Jesus back to Jerusalem for punishment and death.

Last time we learned that there are five main types of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The two most common are the behavioral variant FTD (that we learned about last time) and a second called primary progressive aphasia. The other 3 variants are not very common, however, are seen from time to time.

Can you believe that fraud, errors, and abuse cost Medicare more than $60 billion last year? Medicare fraud is one of the most rampant forms of fraud in the US. There are a variety of ways it is committed and ultimately all taxpayers end up paying for the dishonesty of others. The Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) began in 1997 and they provide valuable tips for preventions and ideas for what to do if you believe you’ve been scammed. The following suggestions come from their web site at smpresource.org.