She's Home, She's Home!

My wife got to come home from the hospital yesterday afternoon and she is off working today. All her parts seem to be working as they should. Praise God!

Deep Healing

One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today." [Luke 5:17-26]

I was thinking a lot about this Bible verse this past week. It's a verse that makes quite a few important points about faith, healing, and forgiveness. Upon hearing it this time, though, I was focused on the healing aspect.

Here's a man who was essentially paralyzed, at least from the waist down. How long had he been that way? We don't know. It could have been weeks, months, or his entire life. But Jesus merely uttered the words, and the man could walk.

Those of us who can walk do it without any thought. But you have to realize that we all have to learn to walk. Even if we've temporarily lost the ability to walk - because of accident or illness - we have to undergo weeks or months of physical therapy to learn how to walk all over again.

Now look closely at the story again - Jesus said the word, and the man got up and walked. He not only had the physical ability to walk; he knew how to walk. He didn't have any physical therapy, but he obviously had all his faculties together; just coping with his sense of balance alone was quite an accomplishment (and remember, he bent down to pick up his mat!)

Now that's healing - deep healing. Amen.

Update on Crappy Week

S just now called from the hospital. She's exhausted today after them having done an echo-cardiogram. They're concerned that her heart rate has been too fast. So she's on medication for that and being monitored. If that doesn't work, they'll shock her heart. Fun, fun.

Meanwhile, the docs have now ruled out that the infection was caused by her stents - the infection has cleared up too quickly. It was probably viral.

Pretty Crappy Week

My wife is having a pretty crappy week now. On Tuesday she broke a crown while eating dinner. At about 4 AM on Wednesday she woke up (pretty amazing that she could) with her blood sugar at 43. She stayed home on Wednesday feeling not so well (pretty normal when she's had a low-blood sugar episode. Then on Wednesday evening she started experience nausea and vomiting (but no pain otherwise).

On Thursday morning she announced that we were going to the hospital. She figured she had the flu or something and she knew she'd get terribly dehydrated if she didn't get treated soon. So off we went. We arrived at the emergency room at about 7:20 AM. Amazingly we got right into an exam room and with S running a temperature of 102, they began to give her IV fluids to rehydrate her along with some anti-nausea drugs. They drew blood and urine samples and gave her some Tylenol (you don't want to know where) to bring her fever down. It was definite that S had some sort of infection, and given her history with the pancreatitis, the doctors wanted her admitted to the hospital (that was the long part - S didn't actually get into a regular hospital room for another 12 hours on account that the hospital was full).

She's feeling much better now and the infection is under control. The gastroenterology docs have ruled out - sort of - that this is not a pancreatitis/bile duct episode in itself, but could be S's body thinking the stents placed in her bile duct last month is a foreign object (which it is) and triggering the infection. And now they're keeping her in the hospital longer because the infection my be affecting her heart.

So that's where we're at with that.

The other bummer is that one of my coworkers worked his last day with the company on Thursday (well, maybe "worked" is too strong a word for what he did on Thursday) and I wasn't able to be there for his sendoff. He has been a good friend; we enjoyed many lunchtime conversations over various topics, including religion. I will miss those talks, but I hope to at least keep it up through email.

It's gotta get better.

Biggest Non-News Story of the Week

It must have been a slow news week, even with the Winter Olympics.

Vice President Dick Cheney accidently shot his friend while they were hunting last weekend. As a result, Mr. Whittington endured more media scrutiny than was called for. I'm not going to bother to link this story because it was that much of a non-news story. Instead, this post is intended to point out the questionable journalistic skills of our liberal media.

My wife's very life was threatened by illness when she was in the ICU two years ago. Did anyone call CNN? John Ashcroft's pancreatitis - a result of a gall bladder gone bad - was nothing compared to what S has had to endure. Yes, we alerted family and friends, and kept them updated. But we did not alert the media.

I'm not trivializing what happened to Mr. Whittington. I'm just trying to respect his privacy and his feelings. This was a hunting accident between two good friends which fortunately (for both of them) did not end up in tragedy. Period. Yet the media has treated this as the crime of the century.

There are those who criticize Cheney for not reporting this to the media sooner. Oh how conveniently the liberal media forgets the tragedy at Chappaquiddick! Senator Ted Kennedy not only failed to contact the media immediately - he failed to contact the police - and left Mary Jo Kopechne to die while he fabricated his alibi.

Olympic Hype

Is anyone even watching the Winter Olympics in Torino? TV ratings have been abyssmal this year (they were beat out by by American Idol!) I'm not sure if that's because the Americans are doing as well as they normally do in the winter games (which is typically dominated by Norway, Germany, and Russia) or if the NBC's coverage has left us somewhat wanting. I was disappointed to see that the opening ceremonies, scheduled to be aired at 7:00 pm local time didn't actually get underway until at least an hour later - I think NBC lost a lot of its audience during the hour they were piddling around with other stories. That's too bad because I think the Italians did a pretty decent job with the opening ceremony (although I'm not so sure about the music selection when the athletes marched in).

Anyway, I found the medal tracker on Fox News to be the most visibly pleasing. Enjoy.

Do We Have An Awesome God Or What?

When they came, he saw Eliab and thought, "Certainly, here in the LORD'S presence is his anointed king." But the LORD told Samuel, "Don't look at his appearance or how tall he is, because I have rejected him. God does not see as humans see. Humans look at outward appearances, but the LORD looks into the heart." Then Jesse called Abinadab and brought him to Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." Then Jesse had Shammah come to Samuel. "The LORD has not chosen this one either," Samuel said. So Jesse brought seven more of his sons to Samuel, but Samuel told Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen any of these. Are these all the sons you have?" "There's still the youngest one," Jesse answered. "He's tending the sheep." Samuel told Jesse, "Send someone to get him. We won't continue until he gets here." So Jesse sent for him. He had a healthy complexion, attractive eyes, and a handsome appearance. The LORD said, "Go ahead, anoint him. He is the one." [1 Samuel 16:6-12]

It amazes me how God works. And once again, a passage from 1 Samuel figures in today's post.

I felt called to be at my church at various times during this weekend's men's Walk to Emmaus mostly in hopes that God would reveal to me the assistant head cook I've been praying for. And I think I know now how the prophet Samuel felt when he was called to annoint amongst Jesse's sons a new king [David] for Israel; there were quite a few names rattling around in my brain through the course of the weekend - no fewer than those that were brought before Samuel. These were good men to consider, yet something didn't seem quite right.

This afternoon I headed down to the church to see if the team needed any help with the tear-down and cleanup. It was pretty much done by the time I got there. But then T showed up and I helped him break down the sound equipment and set it up in the Sanctuary for the closing service. He had an extra microphone and invited me to sing with him during the service (and as God would have it, we ended up being the only two singing tonight). As I was singing and looking over the crowd, someone whose name hadn't even crossed my mind (although his brother's did!) appeared way towards the back. I had met and served with this man for the first time a few years ago when he was head cook on a Chrysalis weekend - the two of us had clicked instantly. And now I felt that the Lord was putting it in my heart that he would be the perfect choice for my assistant - this is someone I worked with closely and knew that we worked well together, and I knew he loved working in the kitchen. "He's the one, isn't he?" I asked the Lord. I prayed about it more and knew I needed only to ask him.

At the conclusion of the service I approached R and his wife (I can't remember her name!) and after the hugs of greeting I mentioned that I was head cook for the October walk. She said of course I would need an assistant. And then she blew me away when she mentioned that she had been praying during the service that R would get to be a head cook again! I posed it formally to R and he pretty much just needed the dates (I gave him a rough timeline) and he said of course he would do it. We exchanged business cards and the annointing was completed.

So just like that I have an assistant head cook. Like David, he wasn't the first choice - but he was the obvious choice. I just needed to wait and trust that God would provide. He did. And two prayers were answered. Do we have an Awesome God or what?

A House Divided

This is rather odd - it almost looks as if a civil war is brewing amongst the Palestinians - and they don't even have a country!

Being Defensive in Excess

"A picture" - it is said - "is worth a thousand words." Such is the case in the uproar over a not-so-recent (September!) publishing of a series of cartoons published in a Danish newspaper [news link]; the cartoons have been republished this past week in various publications across Europe [news link]. One of the cartoons depicted the prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse.

And that bomb has gone off. Muslims around the world are furious. Okay, that's understandable. But to recall ambassadors, burn embassies, and essentially issue death threats against various European interests? Once again, Islam is showing its zero tolerance for anything that is not Islam. Get a freaking life! Oh, and by the way - welcome to the free press! I found an article from a rather enlightened Arab in which he states that Muslims have a repeated history of playing the part of the victim.

Jesus reminds us to turn the other cheek. And as Christians in society, we tend to do that. Our religion is blasphemed on a daily basis, by many groups including Muslims (when they want to take a break from persecuting Jews). In response, do you see us beheading Muslims for their faith? Do you see us using our churches as munition dumps? Do you see us crashing jetliners into mosques? No, of course not. I just wonder if Muslims are angry simply because Mohammed was depicted, or was it because of the way in which he was depicted. I tend to think that if idolatry wasn't the issue, perhaps they'd be proud of how Mohammed was depicted.

Islamic law does indeed prohibit any depiction of the prophet Mohammed. But I'm not bound by Islamic law, nor are the newspapers that published these cartoons. Yet out of respect I personally would not have published the cartoons myself, nor did I choose to publish these images on this blog (however I've included a link to one of the cartoons here in case you're curious what the uproar is about). Just because we can say something, doesn't mean we should.

But Islam has done absolutely nothing to demonstrate their faith has been depicted falsely. In fact, their responses only add more credibility to their detractors. Frankly, the folks in Europe are quite pissed off with their Muslim immigrants; these cartoons - controversial as they may be - are merely a reflection of the frustrations that are being experienced there. After all, we're dealing with a mentality that finds people dancing in the streets when America was attacked on September 11, 2001. In Iraq we found images glorifying the destruction of the World Trade Center. Not to mention celebrations over Bali, Madrid, and London - broadcast in living color on al-Jazeera. And you wonder why Islam is shown in such a negative light by the rest of the world! Get a frickin' clue!

I do not post this article out of hatred - I write this in an attitude of righteous anger. For I am thankful that God has given me a free will. I am thankful that I live in a nation that allows me to exercise that free will. And most of all, I am thankful that I walk a faith journey that is based on love and grace, not a religion whose history has shown to be spread through fear and intimidation, conquest or death. And if you find that offensive, that's just too frickin' bad.