Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Ecclesiastes 7:8-10 The end of a matter is better than its beginning; Patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit. 9Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, For anger resides in the bosom of fools. 10Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?” For or it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.
We spent the night with Rachael at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. She has had 5 units of blood. She was taken off the blood thinner and the bleeding has been greatly reduced. The blessing from this event is that the clot led to the blood thinner which was the catalyst to the hemorrhaging. The hemorrhaging is a symptom of a completely different problem that we were not aware of. This is the 'working together for the good' part. Early on with the clot we conjectured that God might be using this to show us something that we were missing with Rachael. So He has! We do not know what the cause is yet, but it will be decided on Monday what the next steps are. 2 options involve surgery, one does not but could lead to surgery to resolve. In this case, diagnostics and resolve are done during the same procedure for the 2 surgery options.
Patience is a difficult discipline in the flesh and that is why the gift of patience in the spirit is an example of Grace applied to us by God. I don't have a discipline of patience and surely do not deserve it as a gift from our Lord. Yet, it is offered to the believers; as his elect, that have chosen to follow our Lord. If we can remember that heavenly process results in all things leading to the good and that the start of a matter is worse than the end, we can practice patience. Looking back at what use to be will only lead to frustration as our eyes are taken off His plan. To mash concepts - If the hard working farmer takes his eyes off where he is going and turns to look behind, the plow will steer off the furrow. That will be one mad farmer! Anger is a byproduct of a lack of patience. For the unbeliever because process is not happening as he/she wills it, for the believer because process is happening as God wills it and we are not willing to wait for His chosen result. The believer has the added issue of a grieved Holy Spirit.
There is a time for acting quick. A near dangerous error was caught in the E R last night, I had no patience which if applied would have not been good. Yet I did get angry and so quickly sought forgiveness from the nurse. There was little room for patience in the near 3 hour wait to get Rachael through triage with the numerous maladies affecting folks this flu season. I firmly but not angrily acknowledged the fever and vomiting sufferers and explained in explicit yet proper terms Rachael's current condition. This attempt to provide evidence to get her bumped up in line almost failed. Once I shared this to the assembly, Rachael burst out in uncontrolled laughter, nearly devastating my case. It was a futile effort as It was our turn anyway.
In the end, we have been led to a problem that needs medical attention and would have been missed. God has given us the patience to go through this event and in so doing provided several blessings so far. We are encouraged by what we have been given. One thing that Nancy and I shared was the realization that this was the first time since the accident that we felt that God was possibly taking Rachael home. It was a sobering and sad thought. Rachael is so much with so little. We are looking ahead!!
We all have a calling from our Lord Jesus. A calling from our living God. Such a calling should not be approached with pride or haughtiness but with patience and we will have the humble and gentle way to be obedient to God's process. Rachael reminded us again this week what our call is as a family. We are a family with a severely brain damaged daughter who leads us to many opportunities to show Christ.
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, Ephesians 4:1-2.
Please pray for healing, discernment, no cancer and easy resolve. Please hurry up and pray for patience. :-)
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