Walking the path

(2-minute read)

After the doctors put a stent in a coronary artery, they prescribed that I be on blood thinners. I began bleeding in multiple places. There were nosebleeds, bleeding from an ear, and another place. My cardiologist reduced the number of blood thinners, and the ear and nose bleeds stopped. That just left the other place.

Lord, please don’t make me go to the proctologist. I’ve never been to one and don’t know exactly what they do or how they do it. All I can think of is there has to be embarrassment and pain, especially embarrassment. My wife says that if I were a woman or knew what women went through, I would consider this nothing. That may be true, but equality is not at the forefront of my current thinking. Lord, would you wave a thought of healing in my direction. I realize that you love me and that begging has no more effect on you than my asking, but . . . please, please don’t make me go to the proctologist. Lord, I know you don’t negotiate, although it seems like you do when you let me go my own way, even when it’s not best for me. But I certainly will negotiate if you’re willing to make an exception. Please don’t make me go to the proctologist.

To borrow an analogy from C S Lewis, Hamlet had no way to have intimate knowledge of Shakespeare. That is unless Shakespeare wrote himself into the play. Similarly, God sent his son Jesus into human life. Seeing him gives us intimate knowledge of God, such as Jesus healed many people because he loved them. He did not heal many others for the same reason; he loved them. I went to the proctologist.

The doctor kept the conversation light by using a bit of humor. He had thought through every moment of that visit in advance to minimize embarrassment. There was no pain, and even the instruments were body temperature. When I left his office that day, the bleeding had stopped. I realized this was what the Lord wanted me to see. Sometimes, people need help, and we want to help them. Fear of embarrassment for what they have done and what they haven’t done keeps them in their own mental prison. Instead of dealing with the problem, they often just busy themselves with religious things that are of no help. Lord, help me be a more effective vessel for your ministry.

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