How Being Dizzy Gives Advice About Repentance

This is a public service blog for all of you who suffer or have suffered from being dizzy. Not ditzy. I can’t help with that...but I am living proof that knock-you-down-throw-up-and-faint-because-the-whole-world-is-spinning dizzy can possibly be cured...INSTANTLY.

I have suffered periodically from sudden overwhelming dizziness. Each time, I think I am coming down with some awful disease and each time I feel so awful that I know I will never recover. Each time it takes me awhile to remember the last time this happened and try the amazing cure immediately. Many people who have bouts of vertigo suffer from this condition called Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). It sounds awful, but it is not really as serious as the long hard to pronounce name would have you believe.

The way our bodies can tell if we are up, down, sideways, moving etc. is by tiny hairs in our inner ears that have crystals atop each hair. As we move, gravity shifts those hairs by pulling on the crystals, and the movement of the hair sends a nerve impulse that tells the brain which way those hairs, and thus we, are moving. As we age, or sometimes due to knocks to our head or other trauma, a crystal can become dislodged. It can settle against the nerve and send continuous (dizzying, nauseating ) signals to our brain so that our world feels like it is spinning. This is very simplified but is my understanding of the basics of this disorder. 

So a brilliant person figured if we could make the crystal roll away from the nerve, the dizziness would stop, and the body would reabsorb the crystal. He developed a maneuver called the Epley Maneuver (it was probably Mr. Epley who developed this but that is just a guess). The movements by the patient are designed to shift the crystal away from the nerve and roll it to a place where it would not make the dizzy person want to jump off a cliff to stop the anguish.

Sometimes the cure is instantaneous after just one time doing the maneuver. 

The only downside is that the maneuver can cause intensifying of the dizziness while doing the exercise. I know that to be true because as soon as I read about this innocuous and highly successful treatment, I did it years ago. I felt wretched during the exercise but a few moments later, the symptoms had completely vanished. The maneuver will NOT work if you don’t have BPPV and there is no danger in trying. Sometimes it takes a few maneuvers over a matter of days before it works.

So, yesterday morning, I woke up and could barely stand it. The room was spinning wildly and I was sick as a dog. I wrote to the Director of Cities4Life and told him no way would I be on the sidewalk the next few days trying to encourage abortion minded mothers not to kill their babies. I was probably dying. At the very least, I thought I had the beginning of the terrible flu.

Then as the morning and my distress stretched on, a few friends told me it sounded like vertigo...not the flu. They were right. I knew I should try the amazing Epley maneuver, but also dreaded it. I remembered how terrible I would feel, even worse than I did now, before I would feel better.

Isn’t that just like the experience with honest self-examination and repentance before God? It is for me. I know it is going to be enormously painful to come to a sincere revelation of the enormity of my sin and how deeply it grieved God. I kick and scream to justify my sin, because there is almost always a good reason why I had to do what I did. And then, I finally understand that I must confess my sin and let the consequences crush as they may but I cannot bear the guilt and shame any longer. It feels pretty awful at first....but it always results in redemption and healing. It always removes the shame and replaces it with humble gratitude to God for His forgiveness and cleansing.

Anyway, I printed my Epley instruction sheet  and went to my bed. If I die, I die, but I must try.

I did the Epley maneuver twice. I was violently nauseous throughout. Then I stood up. The nausea was gone. The spinning was gone. I went on a seven mile walk praising God.

And now, I am preparing to head out to the sidewalk of the abortion center to plead with the mothers to repent of this sin they are contemplating, to return to the sure and stable anchor for their soul which is God, to turn their hearts to their children. I know the pain in their soul, the dizzying, crushing weight of sin, can be removed, can be healed. Instantly. Bowing our heads and falling to our knees in confession and submission to Christ is not easy...but in one moment we will be made clean, whole, and righteous before God when we proclaim Jesus as Lord, and then strive to live accordingly. With my Cities4Life team, I will offer hope and help and the only choice that in the end leads to abundant life with a world that is not spinning out of control.

I have copied the Epley Maneuver below. Print it and keep it at your bedside. One day, you may need it.

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Steps for Epley maneuver

To perform the Epley maneuver on yourself, follow the steps below. These directions are written for a problem on the left side. If you have a problem with the right side, follow the same steps, but turn your head in the opposite direction. 
Step 1: Start sitting up on a bed, with your legs flat on the bed in front of you. Turn your head 45 degrees to the left. 
Step 2: Lie down, keeping your head turned to the left. Wait 30 seconds. 
Step 3: Turn your head to the right 90 degrees, until it’s facing 45 degrees to your right side. Wait 30 seconds. 
Step 4: Roll over onto your right side before sitting up. 

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2 Chronicles 7:14 

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Luke 13:3 

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

2 Corinthians 7:10 

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.