Imagine someone you love dearly is in desperate need but you don't know it yet. You are busy dealing with your life as it is in your world wherever you are. Your child had a terrible accident. They needed a blood transfusion, taken in and cared for, or even so far as an organ donated to them. Word came to you later. You arrive to take charge of your child. It doesn't matter the age you are or your child is. There is no bargaining here. These are the facts. It is after the fact you discover the person who cared for your child was a Muslim, or Islamic. Maybe the person who helped your child was a paroled murder, or a known adulterer, the town gossip, or even the enemy of your youth. You are a person of faith. The question is when do our principles become our prejudices or our prejudices merge into our principles. Would we be like Abraham and sacrifice the child because scripture "prohibits" association with the unclean. Would our faith be in the form of Peter's who cared for the man in the ditch when all others passed him by? There is evil is every one of us. There is also divine in all of us. What rules in us is that which we choose to honor in our lives. The question is this, how clear is the line between the principles we have based on our faith and the prejudices we form around them. Are these "prejudices" of the divine nature. Would you be grateful your child was saved or would you have sacrificed them rather than have them be 'touched' by the unclean.... Just something to chew on....
I've said to Jane many times, "Hang with me and life WILL be interesting". Even I didn't know how oddly interesting it would be at times. Yesterday it all started with an establishing visit to a new GP Dr. I like him much better. I am following up with some spinal issues I have been having. I have not been happy with my current Dr's apathetic approach. Because of family history, he ordered a series of neck x-rays as well. Dr said his habit is to call the next day with results- second day at the latest. I like that. I can handle that. Off for the Xrays and then off to Wally world. Jane and I are getting ready to get out of the car when I see I have missed two calls from the Dr's office. I still had it on vibrate from when I was in the office!! I listen to the voicemail which instructs me to call ASAP. When I return the call I am told to go the ER immediately as I am walking around with a C-5 fracture in my neck. Jane and I just sit there stunned. WOW!! We did not see that coming. Being our usual selves though, we went ahead an picked up the three small food items we needed at Walmart before we left the parking lot. I mean I'd been fine so far right?? And ask if Jane's glasses were in yet. Answer was No. If there were, I would have waited in the car. In the ER...the Dr's nurse had called ahead and notes were in the system. I checked in and there was no waiting to be called... no sitting for an hour on the chair. There was a word to a co-worker who came around from behind the counter with a neck collar in hand she slapped on me and then immediately returned with a wheel chair and we headed back to a room. "Oh wow, this is serious... they are acting like this is an emergency!" I feel fine. Back in the room I get all kinds of questions. How did you hurt your neck? When did you hurt your neck? How much pain are you in? All of these questions I answer in the negative. They keep repeating them because it doesn't make sense. Now I know I don't remember things but I think I'd remember hitting my head THAT hard. So then they want to know if it's possible if I could have had a seizure. Well, yes but I think I would have remembered that too. Well, they are mystified.... I'm just strange.... OFF to the CT scan. While I am in the room waiting for the Dr to come back with those results the nurse comes in and puts in an IV. This is where internally I begin to feel the weight of the situation. This is really the last thing I want. I do not want neck surgery. I told Jane, "By the way, I am NOT trying to one up you on your broken rib". And it seems ironic we both get our bone density scans and end up with bone fractures. Twenty minutes or so go by with us watching TV, me struggling in the neck brace that really is too big....pushing my lower ears up over my ear holes. It doesn't really lend support so much as it reminds me not to turn or bend my neck. Finally the Dr comes through the door and walks over to my bedside with the words, "You do not have a fractured neck. You have bone spurs that on a flat x-ray make it look fractured but the CT scan breaks the image down enough to show it is not broken. He reaches over an unhooks the neck brace. I'll spare you the rest of the conversation. The nurse comes in, "Well, they made me put that IV in for nothing". Out comes the IV. She reads off my discharge papers and I am on my way. This morning we are looking at the neck brace. The sizes: Tall, Reg, Med, Small, and No neck.... remember I said the brace was too big?? It was sized at NO NECK..... do you think maybe they could have used a child's brace??
There are some things you can give that give you something in return. Last night as I was settling in for bed I requested my nightly smooch from Jane. I said to her, "Did you know it's one of the things you can give and get at the same time?" She said, I love you Sam" in a tone that begged me to say "What?" She said, Only you would break down a kiss to such detail". What she refers to is my constant analytical thinking. It really never shuts off, not even when I am sleeping. It works away in my subconscious. God uses it. The same is true when I am in the shower. I pop my phone in a short glass (to amplify the sound) and turn on my music. This morning my mind began reflecting on last night's comment about things given and received at the same time. When we set out to bless others we often find we are blessed ourselves. We end up feeling good about the good we pass along. What occurred to me in the shower is the same is also true when we curse someone, belittle someone, or in some way try to make the appear less than what God intended them to be. At that moment, we are being less than God intended us to be. Sing a song of grace. Live a life of love. Speak words of life. Let our spirits be lifted to the heavens as they are meant to be. May the faces coming toward you light up because at the very sight of them... your light will shine too...
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