"And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." - Luke 22:44
Monday, Dec 13, 2010 was a memorable night for me. I can remember having a few episodes that day that felt a little like gas, which would subside within five or ten minutes. When I came home from work that evening, I remember thinking that, if I didn’t feel better soon, I wouldn’t be able to make it that night to Anna’s Christmas band concert (which I wouldn’t have missed for anything else). I took some Rolaids and began to feel better… at least well enough to go to hear our little flautist. I made it just fine through the concert, but then felt bad again later that night. After a brief nap on the couch, I woke up with severe stomach cramps and chills. I drew myself a warm bath (the only thing that sounded comforting) and got in. The bath did at least warm me up, but it didn’t ease my pain at all. I progressed in my sickness to the point of vomiting, which brought absolutely no relief to my pain. After an hour or two of suffering, I called out and woke Sarah and asked her to take me to the hospital.
I knew they would ask me the question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rank your pain?”, so I began to ponder my answer on the way. By the time we got there and they asked me, there was only one answer to give. I told them that I was saying ‘9’… only because I was reserving the fact that there could possibly be something out there worse than this, but that I didn’t know what it would be (having a baby maybe… but I don’t get to get on that scale anyway, so…).
My pain was incredible. And the thing was that it never eased off… not even after I would throw up; it hurt constantly, and it hurt bad.
I would be lying if I told you that I was comforted at the time with the following thought, but now that I can look back on the experience, I can say with sincerity that I realize just how precious a thought it is: that Jesus knows pain (many of you may remember the old sports ads featuring Bo Jackson that said things like ‘Bo knows football’ or ‘Bo knows running’; well, only Bo and God know what Bo really knows, but all who study God’s word on even an elementary level know the truth that Jesus knows pain).
He knows the sorrow of being misunderstood… humiliated… unwanted… rejected… despised… hated. He knows what it is like to know when and how you’re going to die, and to choose to accept that death. He knows the pain of a cross at His back… thorns on His brow… a spear in His side… spikes in His feet and hands. And He alone knows the agony of dying for the sins of a world of people, many of whom have not accepted nor will accept the gift of eternal life He offers.
My scale of pain doesn’t even come close to deserving the right to be put up alongside His pain. There is no scale for His pain, because there is nothing else and no one else who could have anything to compare it to. He alone bore an agony I cannot even begin to understand on my behalf, in order that I might have a life full of joy and purpose and peace forever. Amazing.
Daniel
Monday, January 31, 2011
#326.1 – “It’s an Effective Diet Plan… Not One I’d Recommend, but Effective”
"For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD - to whom the LORD swore that He would not show them the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, "a land flowing with milk and honey." - Joshua 5:6
Many of you know that in 2010, Sarah and I had committed ourselves to losing weight. And we both did… until about Nov. At that point, Sarah was still losing some, but I had officially begun to plateau. For about 6 weeks, I didn’t lose an ounce.
And then December 15 came, and I had my emergency appendectomy. By the time I had come home the second time from the hospital, I had lost over 15 lbs. Now I don’t have the slightest idea how much an appendix – even a swollen and gangrenous one – weighs, but I’m positive it’s not 15 lbs!
The reality is that after my first hospital visit, I didn’t have much appetite (I now realize that was largely due to the infection I was developing post-surgery). I ate less than half what I would normally, and there were a couple of days I didn’t eat much at all. Of course, I wasn’t doing much for exercise either… just walking some a few times each day. But I still was losing weight fast. For a week or two there, I lost a couple of pounds every two or three days. Once my infection was discovered and remedied, I immediately began to feel and eat better. I have now gained a few of those pounds back.
This weight loss plan is not necessarily the method I would recommend, but I can most certainly vouch for its effectiveness! I’m happy to have lost the weight I did, but I don’t know that I would have chosen to lose it that way! Nonetheless, I know that God has revealed Himself to me through this time, and that He continues to use this experience to teach me things about Himself… which got me thinking…
Is the destination all that matters, or is the journey important as well? I think about how God chose to bring the children of Israel into the Promised Land. He could have just moved them instantly into Canaan and given them everything He had intended for them right then, but He didn’t do that. He knew they needed some shaping before they were ready to go in (forty years of shaping, to be exact).
God’s desire for all of us who are His children by faith in Jesus is that we all be conformed into the likeness of Christ. Sometimes our idea of how we ought to ‘get there’ and God’s idea are two different things. But we must remember that God sees all… and that time is of no concern to Him… and that He is just as attentive and interested and active in the process of shaping us, as He is in seeing us ‘arrive’.
Daniel
Many of you know that in 2010, Sarah and I had committed ourselves to losing weight. And we both did… until about Nov. At that point, Sarah was still losing some, but I had officially begun to plateau. For about 6 weeks, I didn’t lose an ounce.
And then December 15 came, and I had my emergency appendectomy. By the time I had come home the second time from the hospital, I had lost over 15 lbs. Now I don’t have the slightest idea how much an appendix – even a swollen and gangrenous one – weighs, but I’m positive it’s not 15 lbs!
The reality is that after my first hospital visit, I didn’t have much appetite (I now realize that was largely due to the infection I was developing post-surgery). I ate less than half what I would normally, and there were a couple of days I didn’t eat much at all. Of course, I wasn’t doing much for exercise either… just walking some a few times each day. But I still was losing weight fast. For a week or two there, I lost a couple of pounds every two or three days. Once my infection was discovered and remedied, I immediately began to feel and eat better. I have now gained a few of those pounds back.
This weight loss plan is not necessarily the method I would recommend, but I can most certainly vouch for its effectiveness! I’m happy to have lost the weight I did, but I don’t know that I would have chosen to lose it that way! Nonetheless, I know that God has revealed Himself to me through this time, and that He continues to use this experience to teach me things about Himself… which got me thinking…
Is the destination all that matters, or is the journey important as well? I think about how God chose to bring the children of Israel into the Promised Land. He could have just moved them instantly into Canaan and given them everything He had intended for them right then, but He didn’t do that. He knew they needed some shaping before they were ready to go in (forty years of shaping, to be exact).
God’s desire for all of us who are His children by faith in Jesus is that we all be conformed into the likeness of Christ. Sometimes our idea of how we ought to ‘get there’ and God’s idea are two different things. But we must remember that God sees all… and that time is of no concern to Him… and that He is just as attentive and interested and active in the process of shaping us, as He is in seeing us ‘arrive’.
Daniel
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