Fifteen miles

I knew something was different when I saw the list of emergency numbers.  I had expected blood and guts on this trip.  I knew South Texas was hunting ground for deer and hogs.  I knew we had driven south for hours.  Yet only when I saw the phone number for the Border Patrol at the top of the emergency list, did our proximity to the Mexico border finally register in my brain.  I thought of all the news reports of people trying to illegally cross the border.  What’s it like to run for your life?  Fast.  Panicked.  Maybe in the dark of night.  And maybe running without shoes, as our friends told stories of finding stray shoes out amongst the cactus-filled, arid land, now 15 miles from the border.  I imagined the faces of exhausted people, probably scratched and bloodied and burned.  Whom had they trusted?  Who would deliver them?  I have never physically run for my life, but I have endured days when the walls of life seemed to cave in on me.  Trusting the Lord for a way out is not a loose trust.  The Lord provides the most reliable trust.  He is omniscient.  He loves His children and answers their prayers.

Rethinking medically

My dermatologist’s office called.  Benign, she said.  And, yes, I’m thankful.  Benign is usually better than malignant.  But as I had to rethink before the doctor’s visit, I needed to rethink afterward also.  Why are we so relieved to hear a seemingly favorable doctor’s report?  The brain quits looping in fear when a doctor says certain words.  It’s not as if medical reports are absolute.  Mistakes happen.  Labels switch, and tests can be incomplete.  Even if the word malignant had been spoken to me, it too could have been falsely derived.  The only place we find inerrancy is in God.  With only Him, can I truly sigh in peace. The Lord certainly uses doctors for good.  I love my friends who are physicians, yet they too know they're merely human.  Weeks ago, when I found the spot that the dermatologist eventually biopsied, the Lord took care of me and gently bent my knees to pray.  Now with the biopsy result, I know again that any peace comes ultimately from the Lord.  Whether the medical storm has truly subsided, or whether it continues perhaps under the surface, I seek the Lord either way.  He rests the heart.  He heals.

Banana Split Cake

How does the Lord speak to us?  In this case, very simply in the form of a recurring thought.  Regarding my neighbor, the thought was to take her some dessert one afternoon.  Just gather one spatula and one plate, and deliver one slice of cake down the street.  A privilege indeed, yet a gesture I have overlooked at times.  A smile greeted me in my neighbor's driveway, and a dose of  her laughter made the occasion so sweet.  James 1:27 tells us to look after the needs of those who are widowed, yet by one slice of Banana Split Cake, I could testify also to the enormous blessing bestowed upon us when we give. . . Our Lord is very much alive and wonderfully communicating with us.