- Sometimes it’s something as simple as feeling the warmth of the sun’s rays on your skin. The day can be overcast and bitterly cold, but in that brief moment that the sun makes an appearance through the dark clouds, and rests its beam on your face, you can close your eyes, basking in its glory, and feel a little piece of Heaven here on earth. The glory of God, His Holy Spirit can settle on you unexpectedly just like that, bringing peace without explanation, but simply because it’s there.
- Her mom was doing okay, she was stable anyway, but definitely a decline from the last time I had seen them. I had seen this same patient three weekends in a row, for various reasons, and always in a different location in the hospital. Last weekend she had looked better, even smiled at me, so I was saddened to see she had been moved to the critical care unit. Despite obviously feeling unwell, and being in residence in the unit, she seemed “stable.” That’s always a loose term in critical care and can change in a moment. Usually after you have updated a family member via phone of a continued stable condition, as I had in this instance, it will change shortly after hanging up the receiver. She changed quickly and it was indeed a turn for the worse, bringing a hoard of staff into the room quickly (which is never a good sign). When the poor lady was thankfully stabilized once again, the family was updated and brought back to visit. Seeing their mom in a state different from the one in which they left, there were naturally a lot of questions. Answering questions, even when you know the majority of the answers, is never easy because you will never know them all. You can hypothesize intelligently, but you may never know the answer to the ever elusive “why.” This was no different. They needed more answers. They needed to understand why it happened and give something specific the blame for the decline. I can understand that, even if I can’t answer as I would want to. Sometimes there isn’t an answer, no matter how hard you grab for one.
- Anyone with a child can tell you that is true. Children are famous for questions, and especially ones that start with why. My own three year old asked questions last night for the entire two hour car ride home. We laid out the plan for the road trip and which coarse we would take, but she wanted to know every detail, and a contingent plan if ______ happened (even when we explained that it would not). Medical professions like myself often need the answers to things, specifics as to why something has occurred. My baby had a fever today, but no symptoms of infection. Why? I wanted to know. It went away, and if she’s like her sister at the same age, it may likely not return. I may never know what caused it, and a part of me will cringe with the dissatisfaction of not knowing. I have a dear friend who is very analytical. I watch him study things, with a scientific approach. He wants evidence and solid data that proves something to be what it claims to be. This often causes him to be distrustful of others, and unable to simply enjoy something for what it is rather than having to prove that it is. I see this in religion too, maybe too much. I do believe in discernment and testing of the spirits. I personally rely on that a lot. But asking the Holy Spirit to help you discern the root and basis of an issue may need to come before exhaustive research of quantifiable data. I think you can test things against the Bible for sure. If it contradicts God’s word then naturally there’s a problem. I think researching what others have discovered in their own studies is a good tool also. But never forget the first line of defense which is praying and asking for God’s guidance and discernment in the matter. Don’t become consumed with proving a theory incorrect because you don’t see rock solid evidence. Sometimes the answer isn’t easy to find, and you may not know for sure until you stand before Jesus himself. We unintentionally separate ourselves from other believers when we’re so busy trying to prove that we’re absolutely right. We lose out on the joy of fellowship, and the joy of spending time simply believing. Sometimes, when God’s word says it is so, you just have to belief and accept that you might not fully know the answer to all the why questions. It’s faith, remember? I was reading this today and thought, I definitely don’t want to be like that!
John 20:25
25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
An inquiring mind is a good thing, but when you keep asking to know “why” rather than to know Him, you may find yourself consumed with getting answers and selling yourself short on just enjoying the sun on your face.
That is all 🙂