Knot Tying

On Friday October 29, 2010 we attended the wedding of a local missionary who married a young lady from Indonesia, who lives in Singapore.  Fifty people from the province made the journey in two vans.  As is not out of the ordinary, one of the vans entertained the wedding attenders with mechanical failure.  Their late arrival gave the city dwellers opportunity to talk and make late minute preparation for the ceremony.   Shower of joy, I did not hear shouts of joy, reigned upon the couple as both have anticipated the day for about 4 decades.  Needless to say the couple were all smiles.  The wedding attenders happy for the couple as they continue to share the good news in Cambodia.

First Born

On October 30 my oldest son will be 35 years old.  He is doing well in life with a lovely wife and three sons who love life.  He works as a neonatologist in Florida.  First borns seem to carry the burden of the one that parents want to correct the most.  I take a while before a parent begins to realize that children are wired a certain way and if we as parents attempt short circuit the wirering we may see the transformer explode.  So far his transformer seems to be in good shape

Blink

In the blink of an eye life changes us. The other day a 22-year-old young man presented himself at Mercy Medical Center where I serve as a doctor. In one fleeting moment he sustained a severe head injury in a car-moto accident which left him only with the ability to blink his eyes. If I clapped and rapidly moved my hands towards his eyes it would cause him to Blink but other stimuli showed to induce no response. This once active energetic young man now lies on a stretcher being tube fed and developing ulcerations on his pressure points. In the past 6 weeks the family has chased the dream of this boy suddenly showing improving health. Now, after spending $12,000.00 dollars, the reality of no improvement outside of divine intervention has begun to set in. His wasted muscles have become strands of connective tissue and breathing comes with slight difficulty. His wife lovingly speaks words of encouragement to him while she and a younger brother prepare the liquid calories to place in his nasogastric tube.

 

Some family members state they have received the gift of salvation through Christ and others have expressed interest in hearing more of the good news of life in Christ. Under the best of medical care a young man in this situation has a bleak future. “ Why” is a question that we often repeat without hearing a satisfying response. The ubiquity of why drives us to consider the deeper issues of life- Why did God love us enough to provide reconciliation of our souls to Christ? Why did God’ s Son suffer for my rebellious mind and heart? Why has the scripture been preserved so that we may read of the good news of new life in Christ? Why am I not the one who lies in a bed moving only my eyelids? 

 

As we live events of life that we perceive as good may later surprise us by inducing a negative response that may glorify ourselves rather than seeing God glorified in the situation.  Conversely as we see negative events come into our lives, those events may lead us to see life in such a way that we give glory to God for the stresses and negative events in our lives.  We can be confident that God will accomplish His purpose His way.

Irrational rational reality

Living in a land of contrasts stretches the heart and mind. The process of making a rational decision often becomes irrational. A 62 year old lady diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx. She lives in a province of Cambodia. She has money for her daily food and lives with a daughter. Her oncologist tells her with the best of treatment she has a 20% five year survival rate. Should she take advantage of the surgery which would require her family to sell their home.? Should she live with dignity the rest of days with her family in the province? How does one bring a sense of reality to this dilemma?