I read some statistics recently that I found appalling.  Cosmetic surgery in this country has increased dramatically.  In the July 17, 2006 issue of The Des Moines Business Record in an article entitled “Looking Like A Million,” Sarah Bzdega states that there were more than 10 million such surgeries in 2005.  This does not count reconstructive surgeries for such things as injuries or breast cancer, which actually decreased 3% from the previous year.  These figures only include things like liposuction, face lifts, nose and ear jobs, breast augmentation and buttock implants.  Minimally invasive procedures also increased 13%, and many of the patients are now men as well as women.
            Have you noticed the plethora of weight loss commercials?  And why are these people losing weight?  Not for their health, but so a man can have a “trophy wife” and another can have a “better sex life,” and a forty year old mom can have a “smoking hot body.”  More and more young women are falling into eating disorders because they want to look acceptable.  Americans are so consumed with the concept of celebrity that we care more about looking like our favorite star than being a decent human being.  I have even heard “Christians” say things like, “It’s a pity she isn’t better looking,” when meeting a new bride.  Truly Samuel was right when he said, in 1 Sam 16:7:  for man looks on the outward appearance…   But shouldn’t we, of all people, be better than that?
            What good will it do me to look 40 when I am 80 and my time is up?  It will not keep me from dying.  It will just make a pretty corpse.  What are we teaching our children about what to look for in a spouse, someone beautiful on the outside or beautiful on the inside?  It is really true that the inner person can eventually effect how the outer person looks, especially to those who know them best.  That is what they need to hear, and more, need to see exemplified in the Christians around them.
            I bet when the judgment scene in Matthew 25 unfolds, the right side will be overrun with pleasantly plump, gray-haired sheep, still sporting all their laugh lines, while the left has an inordinate number of thin, gorgeous goats.  And I bet every one of those goats would take all their crows’ feet, gray hairs, and thigh fat back in an instant for a chance to switch sides.
 
But Jehovah said to Samuel; Look not on his countenance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.  For Jehovah says, for man looks on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looks on the heart. 1 Sam 16:7
Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Prov 31:30
 
Dene Ward

     A few months ago I fell.  It was not an "old lady" fall; anyone else would have fallen under the same circumstances.  The x-rays showed no breaks, no cracks, no bone bruises, nor any other problem, but I landed hard on the side that seems to have had a lot of some of the worst arthritis out there.  We assumed it would heal in a couple of months and all would be well.  Here we are over five months later and not only has it not healed, it hasn't even improved. 
     Every morning it takes me about two hours to be able to walk through the house without holding on to furniture and countertops.  Then it takes an hour and a half of physical therapy exercises to be able to get through the day, not without pain, but without making noises when I move.  Often I need to stop halfway from the parking lot and the church house or doctor's office or grocery store and lean over for a while to make the pain bearable.  No longer does Keith wheel the grocery cart for me as I shop; instead, I hang onto it so I can make it through what used to be an enjoyable part of my routine.  It may not have been an "old lady" fall, but it has certainly turned me into an old lady almost overnight.
     I seldom sleep well any more.  I have found only one position I can lie in without considerable pain.  I start out that way and then, in the night, when I move the pain wakes me.  It takes a few minutes to get back into position and then wait out the pain until it settles down and I finally drift back to sleep.  It will happen again and again as the night wears on.  What ought to be an eight hour rest is seldom more than five or six.  Then, after a week of that, I will finally have a decent sleep just because I am so exhausted that I can sleep through the pain.
     On nights when that happens and I wake fairly well rested, my mind thinks all is well.  Then I try to stretch or roll over and suddenly I realize that nothing has changed.  The pain is still there.  It will never stop.  It is, in a word, relentless, and that is the worst part.  I have had worse pain, especially in my eyes—battery acid drops in an eye with a fresh incision or on a freshly abraded (scraped) cornea.  But at least that pain always stops eventually, the one after 10 or 15 minutes and the other after three or four days.  After all these years, I know that and can put up with it.  Nothing, however, has stopped this hip pain that radiates up and down my whole leg, and after trying so many things it appears that nothing will.
     Jesus spent a lot of words trying to describe Hell in a way that would horrify us.  He wants us to avoid that place at all cost and doesn't mind using some negative reinforcement.  Now I have found something that will motivate me like nothing else.  Eternity is difficult to describe too, but I think the Eternity of Hell is now easy for me to comprehend.  It is relentlessness.  Whatever you use as your picture—fire, pain, dark, all of those things and more—it will always be there, without a break, without even a moment's relief.  Now I understand the rich man in Jesus's parable—just a drop of water on my tongue, he asked for.  Just a few minutes without this relentless pain, I think.  But Hell has no tomorrow, just the ever-present Now that never ends.
     I tried to find an antonym for relentless, something positive that never ends.  Nothing really suited me, either in online dictionaries or Merriam-Webster.  Then I asked myself what would make this pain just a little more bearable, and came up with "hope."  You see, the doctor did make one suggestion that I tried and the pain actually went away for 5 days.  But there is one insurmountable problem.  That medication also worsens my eye problems.  Which would I rather have, no pain or eyesight?  I am sure you know the answer to that!  Even if I reach the point that I can no longer move at all, I still want to see—flowers, sunsets, rainbows, and all the beautiful faces of the ones I love.
     But we have come up with a compromise—I can take that medication for one week every four months.  That means that three weeks out of the year I will have no pain!  Do you know how marvelous that sounds after the last six months?  That sounds like "hope."  You better believe I am looking forward to that week and more than that, I know it will happen because we have already tried it once.  I trust that it will work again. 
     Hope is the thing that should carry you through your life, no matter how bad things get.  What did we expect anyway?  This world is cursed by sin and death and we brought it on ourselves.  But God gives us hope.  Our eternity does not have to be relentless.  Because God gives us the hope of the resurrection, we can look forward to relief from the pain and suffering we all live with.  No, hope is not "a thing with feathers."  It is a strong and heavy anchor that will keep us from drifting if we hang onto it with all our might.
 
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 6:17-20).

I imagine everyone has, by the time they reach my age, had some sort of physical therapy.  Sometimes it is needed after an injury, sometimes after surgery, sometimes because of a physical condition or illness.  If you have had a good experience with physical therapy, you know that it hurts, but that the hurt eventually reduces the pain.  If you have ever done any sort of strength training, that should make sense to you.  After a work-out your muscles might be sore, but soon you can do more with less soreness.  In order to strengthen a muscle, you simply must cause it some stress.  If I refuse physical therapy because "it hurts," sooner or later I won't be able to move at all.
            I keep doing the physical therapy exercises I was given 20 years ago.  That is why I can still walk.  Anyone who has had severe back pain knows that it effects every single part of your life.  No one moves anything, except maybe their pinkie finger, without aid from the back one way or the other.  When we first moved to Tampa, things were so unsettled with unpacking, finding new doctors, and having men in the house renovating practically every inch of it, that I did not do my exercises for about 6 months.  And my back knew it.  It took a couple of months to get things back in order.  And whenever I have even missed a couple of days due to traveling or illness, that little twinge in my lower back tells me it's time to get back to work! 
            I do one exercise that stretches out my back in a particularly strong way.  I feel the pull when I lean over.  It hurts, but I have grown to think of it as a "good" hurt because when I sit up straight afterward, the "real" pain is gone.  Keith has a spot just under his left shoulder blade that hurts due to a bullet wound.  When I feel around in there, I can feel the knot.  When I rub it he usually winces and grunts a few times, but afterward, he always says, "That's so much better."  I am sure you get the point by now.
            May I suggest that the same is true of "spiritual therapy?"  Studying to better oneself often hurts as we begin to see faults we have ignored.  Sometimes it hurts so much that we just blind ourselves to what we see.  James describes something similar:  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (Jas 1:22-25).
            And then there are the "wounds" that a brother can inflict with rebukes, reproaches, or sometimes just an exhortation.  No matter how carefully he words it, it will not be any fun to listen to, any more than physical therapy is fun.  Yet, a real friend often knows best what we need to hear at the moment, and if his friendship is true, he will rub those sore spots until they grow better. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; But the kisses of an enemy are profuse (Prov 27:6).   Too often we prefer the flattery, and our souls will suffer even greater pain if we give in to that preference.
            So give yourself some spiritual therapy today.  You will feel all the better for it, and be in better spiritual shape too.
 
Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it… (Ps 141:5).
 
Dene Ward

I just spent twenty minutes trying to get 84 acid reducing pills out of six blister packs so I wouldn’t have to do it every morning for the next 7 weeks.  Twenty minutes! 
           What is it with these manufacturers?  You would think they would want you to try their medication, not give up in frustration, throw the whole thing away, and use another.  Or maybe it’s meant to be self-perpetuating:  the more aggravated you get, the more acid your stomach produces, and the more you need their pills.
            I have an issue with childproof caps too—about the only ones they keep out of the bottle are those of us with arthritic hands.  And CD and DVD packages?  How many times have I cut myself on them and, with this aspirin-a-day regimen, bled all over everything before I even knew I had done it?
            Manufacturers who don’t want you to use their product—sounds strange doesn’t it?  What about that branch of theology that says that God doesn’t want to save everyone, that Jesus died only for the ones He does want to save, and that no matter what you do or how you feel about it, there is nothing you can do to change that?  Let me show you why I have a problem with that.
            Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? Ezekiel 33:11
            This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, 1 Timothy 2:3-4.
            For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, Titus 2:11
            The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance, 2 Peter 3:9.
            God does want us to be saved, as many as are willing to live by his Word.  Jesus died for all, not just those lucky few.  You can make a difference in your own salvation, “turn back from your evil ways,” “come to a knowledge of the truth,” and “reach repentance.”
            Praise God that He loves us and wants us with Him for Eternity.  Praise God that salvation does not come in a blister pack!
 
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
 
Dene Ward

     "Can you tolerate these meds?" 
     I sat there a minute, stunned.  What did she mean, can I tolerate them?  Did I have a choice if I wanted to keep my vision?  No, I did not.  So, of course I could tolerate them.
      "Well, some people can't, you know," she probably added because I looked so confused.  I had always thought that if there were an easier way, then that's what they would have given me rather than these battery acid drops that made me climb Keith like a tree as I put them in.  "So they stop taking them," she finished.  And what? I thought.  Go blind in short order?  Evidently.
     Before one of these painful, complicated surgeries a few years back, the doctor looked at me and said, "You're going to have to be tough for this to work." We were just over two weeks into recovery when I found out what he meant.  But this is the bottom line.  Do you want to see as long as possible?  Yes, I do.  Then you will have to endure some difficult, extremely painful things, and for a good while.  And I have.  That’s how much it means to me to keep seeing, to be able to keep studying, writing, and teaching.  And that's how much it means to me to see my babies, to watch my grandsons grow up just as I watched my sons, to watch birds flit from tree to tree, to see the new blooms on the triple hibiscus, the rose, and the gardenia, even to watch that little anole blow up his red balloon of a throat.  I really do not understand anyone who cannot steel themselves enough to do what has to be done so that all those things can happen.
     Anyone who has endured an injury or stroke and the following physical therapy knows exactly what we are talking about here.  But do you want to walk again? Do you want to talk again?  Do you still want to be as independent as possible?  Then you have to hurt.  You have to push yourself and you have to be tough.  Whining won't make everything go away.
     I think we need to have that same mindset spiritually.  Too many times we jolly people into conversion, which turns out to be anything but because they give up at the first impediment—the first time any pain is involved.  We don't want it to be too hard, and then when it is we wonder why they left.  We don't want to run them off before they even get started, which it turns out, is just delaying the inevitable because they came in thinking everything in life would be perfect now.  But Jesus demands a commitment from the beginning that is on a par spiritually with any sort of painful physical medication and therapy we could imagine. 
     And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it (Mark 8:34-35).
     Notice, he wasn't just talking to the Twelve, people who had been with him for a while and understood.  He was talking to the crowd, the people who were just following him around, listening.  He did not limit this to people he felt would be better able to handle it.  He said, "Anyone."  He thought they should know from the beginning the commitment he expected.  Deny yourself, crucify yourself, lose your life.
     In another place, As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. To another he said, Follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:57-62).  What!?  Didn't Jesus know you have to gradually, carefully bring someone into the fold, not hit them in the face with reality?
     We need to toughen up, people.  When I won't listen because "I find that offensive," I am no better than a patient whining to his doctor because physical therapy hurts or the medicine stings.  "But you hurt my feelings when you tell me I have to give up these things and change."  These are the wounds of a friend, but we have no tolerance for anything but candy-coated platitudes (Prov 27:6) because that is what we were taught to expect by people who meant well, but were wrong.  Just like with this horrible eye medicine, you have to hurt (repent/change) before you can get well.  Do you want to get well, or not? 
     And we need to be honest with the ones we are trying to gain for the Lord.  Jesus demands a commitment, one that may mean sacrificing things that are precious to us.  But by not agreeing to those sacrifices, we are showing him that he is not that important to us.  Family is more important, friends are more important, status is more important, money and lifestyle are more important, and we just can't bear to lose all of that.  It just "hurts" too much.
     And just like those with a physical problem who will never heal, neither will those who are spiritually sick.  Yes, we all know that He says, Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  (Matt 11:29-30).  But we completely ignore that there is still a "yoke" and a "burden."  It is lighter than Satan's load if we truly commit to it, but he never promised a life without pain.  
     Like my doctors have told me, the Great Physician also says, Do you want to be a disciple of Christ?  Then you will have to be tough.
 
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, Do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,  (John 6:66-68).

Dene Ward

I don’t know how many times I have had someone tell me that my other senses will all improve once I am completely blind.  I just smile and tell them I appreciate their concern.  It is the grateful, loving thing to do, while jumping down their throats and biting their heads off with a sharp retort certainly isn’t.  If they didn’t care so much they wouldn’t try to be helpful and I am just as responsible for my words as they are for theirs.
            As to that comment, it is just a myth.  It isn’t that suddenly your hearing will improve when you can no longer see.  It’s that suddenly you use it to better advantage.  When you could see who was approaching you, you didn’t need to hear the door open, judge the weight of the steps and length of the stride, and determine whose voice it was.  Now you must, so you do.  Even still sighted, I have always seen more than Keith has.  When you have poor vision, you concentrate harder and take care to notice more.  I see signs he never does.  I notice the color of cars and houses.  I know two oak trees flank a driveway, not just one, and I remember that when we go back to someone’s home the second time.  He just looks for the address, numbers I can never see from the car.
            All of that made me wonder about our spiritual senses.  Did you know you can find all five mentioned in a figurative context in the Bible?
            Jesus had a lot to say about people who are spiritually blind.  For judgment came I into this world, that they that see not may see; and that they that see may become blind. Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said unto him, Are we also blind? Jesus said unto them, If you were blind, you would have no sin: but now you say, We see: your sin remains, John 9:39-41. 
            The prophets also talk about spiritual blindness.  It isn’t just that some people cannot comprehend God’s word—they blind themselves to it when they do not want to see what it says.  Peter also mentions people who are spiritually near-sighted in 2 Pet 1:9.  You can find more passages about spiritual blindness than any of the other senses, and they should scare us all to death.  Be careful when, in a spiritual discussion, you find yourself uttering the words, “I just can’t see that.”  It may be that you have become spiritually blind.
            You could make a similarly long list of passages commanding us to “hear,” “listen,” “hearken,” and “take heed.”  Jesus said in the context of the parable of the sower, “Take heed what you hear,” and also, “Take heed HOW you hear.” 
            Just as some are “hard of hearing” physically, the prophets and preachers dealt with those who were hard of hearing spiritually.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel both were told to go preach to a people who would “refuse to hear.”  Do you think it cannot happen to us?  The Hebrew writer warns, “See that you do not refuse him who speaks,” 12:25, and Paul warns of those who have “itching ears.”  Keith has special medicine for exactly that thing.  Too bad it doesn’t work on the spiritually deaf as well.
            Do you think you can’t have a spiritual problem with your nose?  For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 2 Corinthians 2:15-16.  The point is exactly the same—if you don’t like what becoming a follower of Christ means, it will stink to you, but to those who understand, who comprehend, who hear and see the true nature of things, he will smell wonderful.
            The Hebrew writer talks about those who have “tasted the heavenly gift…and the goodness of the word of God” 6:4,5.  If you don’t know people who think the Bible is anything but good, who believe that it is, in fact, the source of human misery, you haven’t tried too hard to spread it.  Always there are some who take a taste and spit it out with disgust—the same people who cannot see, cannot hear, and cannot smell the sweet aroma of Christ.
            And always there are those who cannot feel, whose hearts will never be pricked by the gospel, who are numb to its appeals.  Paul told the Athenians at the Areopagus, And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, Acts 17:26-27.  Not many of those people groped their way to the Lord in the end, but a few did.
            Did you notice something about all those spiritual senses?  When a physical sense leaves you, you learn to make better use of the ones that remain.  Unfortunately, when a spiritual sense leaves, the rest seem to follow suit.  If you won’t see, then you won’t hear.  You won’t let the grace of God touch your heart.  You won’t enjoy the smell of his sacrifice nor the taste of his love--if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, 1 Pet 2:3.
            Can you imagine a more miserable existence than never seeing a sunset, never hearing the sweet coo of a baby, never tasting a ripe strawberry, never smelling the yeasty aroma of bread fresh from the oven, or never feeling the warm sun on your back?  That’s exactly the kind of lives people live when their spiritual senses don’t work.  But you can fix them all with one easy cure—heal your heart.  God told Ezekiel that if the people repented he would give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26.  Once your heart can be touched, the other senses will come flooding back into your life, almost overwhelming you with new sensations.
            The five physical senses are a wonderful blessing from God.  The spiritual ones are even better.
 
In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 29:18-19.
 
Dene Ward

I had sat there for hours like I always do, occasionally undergoing a test or other procedure, waiting for the doctor to finally reach my chart, along with a dozen or more other patients who also sit for hours every time we go to the Eye Clinic at the University of Florida School of Medicine.  But this time was different.
            An older woman and her husband sat next to me.  As often happens, we began to talk, usually about how long we have been waiting, the longest we have ever had to wait, and the various distances we all travel to see this world renowned, and incredibly skillful doctor we share.  Then she said four words, “I have a shunt,” and everything changed.
            My head whirled around, riveted to her face and especially her eyes.  “You do?”
            “Yes, two actually.”
            “I have one, too,” I said, excitement creeping into my voice.
            Her eyes instantly lit up.  “You do?” and there followed an hour of, “Do you have trouble with depth perception?  Do you see circles?  Does it ache?”  One question followed another, both of us nodding to one another and saying, “Yes, yes. Me too!”
            Finally someone understands, finally someone knows how I feel (both of us were thinking). 
            Someone understands how odd your vision can be; how colors have changed, how light “gets in the way;” how you can’t tell when a curb is a step up or step down or any step at all; how riding in the passenger seat makes vehicles in front of you look much closer; how many strange things can go wrong with an eyeball after what seems to the world like an easy surgery—why, you didn’t even have to stay in the hospital so how could it be serious? Someone else understands how much pain eye drops can cause, and how all those beta blockers can wreak havoc with your stamina; how careful you have to be when doing something as simple as wiping your eye because of all the hardware inside and on top of it; how inappropriate the remark, “I hope you get better soon,” is because there is no hope for better, just a hope that it will not get worse too soon; and someone else knows the feeling that any day could be the day that it all blows up.
            We sat there talking like close personal friends.  Occasionally she looked over at her husband and said, “You see?  I’m not crazy after all,” and he nodded, a bit patronizingly I thought, but we had developed such a quick and strong bond that perhaps I was just feeling protective.
            We were both called to separate exam rooms but when I left, I waved across the hall and wished her well.  I never got her name, nor she mine.  Strange, I guess, but we never felt the need to ask personal questions—we felt like we had known one another for years, and all because we felt the kinship of understanding what each of us was experiencing when no one else did.
            No matter what you are going through today, you have a friend just like that.  God emptied Himself to become a man and experience what you experience, feel what you feel, and suffer what you suffer.  He did that precisely so He could understand.  I always knew that, but now I really know how quickly a bond can form simply because of that shared experience. 
            But what if I had never responded to the woman’s simple statement about a shunt?  What if I had just sat there and done nothing?  That bond would never have formed.  It takes a response to the offer to gain the reward.  It takes a willingness to open up and share with the Lord the things you are feeling.  Yes, He already knows, but you will never feel the closeness of that bond until you share with Him as well.
            That day it felt like I had found, not a new friend, but a long, lost friend from the past.  When it happens that fast, it can’t be a complete stranger, can it?  Why don’t you turn around and talk to the Man next to you today and find out for yourself?
 
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery…Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted, Heb 2:14-18.
 
Dene Ward
 

Many years ago, I had to travel a thousand miles three different times to have sight-saving surgeries.  The hospital in that city had an arrangement with a nearby hotel that gave discounts to patients who had to stay a week or more.  On our first week-long stay, we found the accommodations nice and the free buffet breakfast above the usual in quality.  The waitress who served us was friendly and attentive.  We talked with her a few minutes nearly every time she stopped by with coffee refills, extra napkins, and other things we needed during the meal.
            The second surgery came six months after the first.  Once again we were there for a week, and surgery was on the agenda.  Our first morning, before we could say anything, the waitress popped out with, "I remember you.  You treated me like a person and talked to me.  Everyone else treats me like furniture."  We were flabbergasted; we really hadn't done anything special.  When we left the hotel restaurant, I left my purse sitting on the floor next to our table.  Back in the room, we discovered what I had done, and called the front desk.  "The waitress is on her way up to your room," we were told.  "She found your purse and asked for your room number."  We had not given her our name, but had mentioned the eye surgery, so that was how she described us and found us.  We opened our door, and sure enough, there she came walking down the hall.  We were not trying to get something out of being nice to someone, but it certainly paid off—all of our travel money was in that purse!
            A few years ago, Keith had to have a fairly serious and complex surgery.  He was in the hospital 5 nights and the surgeon had made arrangements for a private room so I could stay with him as a "medical necessity" to help him communicate due to his profound deafness.  When you don't feel well, the concentration required for lip-reading becomes next to impossible, and one cannot always wear over the ear hearing aids (the strongest ones) while lying in bed due to feedback from the pillow behind your head.  We never thought anything about how we were acting during those five nights and six days.  But on the fourth day, one of the nurses came in to say good-bye.  She would be off the next two days and we would be gone before she got back to work.  "I just want to know where you go to church," she said.  "You two are different."  Once again we were surprised.  Different?  How?  Because we treated the nurses like people, asked about them and their families, and actually said please and thank you.  "You would be surprised," we were told, "how other patients treat us--like personal slaves."
            We still are not sure exactly what we did in those two occasions except this maybe:  we are quick to spout, "Love your neighbor," but sometimes we don't know how to apply the rest of it, "Like yourself."  It's this—you treat them "as" yourself, and what are you?  A person, not a slave, not a robot, not an inconvenience or aggravation—a person, one who has feelings, rights, opinions, families, and the same sorts of problems you do, someone who deserves respect and consideration.  You train yourself to do that in every situation and then when circumstances are difficult, the kindness that has become second nature to you still comes out rather than a quick temper, irritation, ugly comments or name-calling.  You understand that you are part of God's plan to reach the lost and that means that even in a short moment of contact, you show them the love and grace and mercy that God has shown you. 
            I suspect most of you are doing this already. I learned it from my Daddy, who always made a point to know people's names and to ask about them and their lives away from whatever milieu he had found them in.  As this world becomes uglier and people are afraid to even look one another in the eye and smile, remember the Lord's oft repeated command.  Love your neighbor as yourself—as a human being—because that's what you were when someone found you.  You never know what might make a difference in a person's life, or in their hope of salvation.
 
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it (Jas 2:8-10).
 
Dene Ward

Whenever I see those commercials touting the ability to order your contact lenses online and get them the next day, I want to laugh.  If you can do that, thank your Heavenly Father for the vision you still have and don't complain.  Only two labs in the whole world can create the contact lenses I need.

That means an optician is out of the question for me.  I need a real doctor to fit my strange little eyeballs.  They say I have a 16 eye and a 15 eye.  That's shorthand for millimeters, and doesn't take into account the tenths.  When they are that size the tenths don't really matter.  It's a condition called "nanophthalmos."  If you have a normal sized eyeball, it is 26-28 mm.  Nanophthalmos begins at 20 mm, and it skews all the formulas and makes every procedure much more difficult and risky the lower that number goes.

Because of all the procedures and surgeries I have had, my eyes no longer have the same, or nearly the same, vision.  In the old, pre-surgery days, the corrections in my lenses were +17.25 for the right and +15.50 for the left, a difference of less than 2 points.  Once you hit a difference of 4 or more, any sort of correction for both eyes at the same time in a pair of glasses leads to double vision.  My eyes are now right at a 4 point difference.  I can either wear correction on one eye only, or I can wear contacts, which somehow do not have the same problem as glasses.  Of course, I am wearing contacts, the only way to have even halfway normal vision.  (Neither eye can be corrected to 20/20.)  If I become too old or ill to handle contacts, I will be in a mess as far as my vision goes, assuming I still have it, which is always in question.

Sometimes my vision is a bit off because of the difference.  Usually, the brain takes over and the eye that is causing the problem is automatically blocked out.  And when I wear OTC reading glasses, that always happens because the lenses are the same correction, meaning one eye can hardly see at all.  I suppose it all sounds complicated and aggravating, but I am used to it now and only think about what I can see, not what I cannot see, and thanking God that he has sent me to some amazing doctors.

I am afraid some of us have a spiritual optometrist.  We go to him for specialty lenses that we really ought not to wear at all.  We talked not long ago about "Super Hero Glasses," the ones that let you look at Bible characters as being far above our abilities and therefore excuse ourselves from even trying to follow their examples.  (See post on 4/26/24.)  The Jews must have worn those.  They prided themselves on being Abraham's children, but never acted like that faithful obedient man themselves (John 8:39).  Being his children means acting like him, Jesus reminded them, and then called them children of the Devil instead.

Sometimes we ask for glasses that block out the necessary and keep us distracted with things of this world.  The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, ​but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! ​“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money (Matt 6:22-24).  Money is just one of those distractions.  Add to it things like entertainment, things that are not necessarily sinful but which eat up our time, taking our focus from the spiritual.

And some of us ask for bifocals that see the errors and faults of others, but which, like my brain automatically blocks out the bad, will block out our own faults.  ​Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? (Luke 6:41), Jesus might ask us. And we would have to say that we had those glasses specially made to do just that.

Then there are those who buy the lenses that will strike out any command of Jesus that we find offensive.  What did he have to say about that?  Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit (Matt 15:12-14).  Something we might do well to remember the next time we find a sermon not to our liking.  We might manage to get rid of the preacher in our self-serving complaints, but it won't change the result of wearing those types of lenses.

And along those lines, we might ask for lenses that completely block out anything that doesn't suit us, that goes against what we have always believed, or that we cannot seem to comprehend.  Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him…(John 14:17), and, For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains" (John 9:39-41).

I could go on and on because inability to see plain Truth is mentioned again and again as various ones reject Jesus, God, and their messengers.  It is so easy to put on those glasses, not corrective lenses, but those that actually inhibit your spiritual eyesight.  Do you realize who that optometrist is who is giving you these glasses?  It is you.  It is me.  We create them ourselves, preening in the mirrors to see how they look on us, and what we mistakenly believe they will help us see. 
 
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2Cor 4:3-6).
 
Dene Ward

That garden of ours is a lot of work.  In Florida that means it is also a lot of sweat.  When Keith comes in from a summertime Saturday of hoeing, weeding, mulching, spraying, mowing, and picking, he must leave his work clothes hanging on the porch because the hems are literally dripping.
            Losing that much fluid can be dangerous.  Dehydration can cause nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps, lightheadedness, and heart palpitations as the body tries to pump the same amount of blood with less liquid to accomplish the task.  If the body is not re-hydrated, confusion will follow, and eventually coma, organ failure, and death.
            It is important to keep your body hydrated as you go along and not wait until you are thirsty.  Keith always carries a gallon jug of water out with him to set in the shade of the carport while he works.  Every time he has a break in the activity—a finished row, an accomplished chore, an errand that takes him past the carport—he stops to take a drink even if he doesn’t think he needs it.  If you wait until you are thirsty, dehydration has already set in.
            I like to think of our Sunday assemblies as our chance to re-hydrate.  Nothing can sap your energy and drain your spiritual reservoirs like a week out in the world.  Without replenishing ourselves on a regular basis, we can suffer spiritual dehydration.  Trials become harder to bear and temptations more difficult to overcome.  The carnal, selfish attitudes that surround us can drain our faith.  Suddenly we hit a critical point, a time when our souls wrest in a spiritual cramp, and if we do not top up the tanks, a spiritual heat stroke in on the horizon.  If we wait too long, coma—an indifference to our situation—and spiritual death will soon follow.
            When the assembly of the saints works as it was intended, it reminds us that we are not alone, encourages us with the hope of the gospel, strengthens the muscles that have grown weak with exhaustion, and replenishes the faith, “provoking one another to love and good works.”  That meeting that we so often do nothing but complain about is as essential to our spiritual health as water is to our bodies. 
            But you can’t just sit there looking at the water bottle and expect to gather strength from it.  You can’t expect someone to hold it for you.  Your mama quit doing that a long time ago.  Re-hydration takes at least enough effort to pick up the bottle, lift it to your lips, and swallow.
            You don’t need it every week, you say?  Yes, you do.  If you wait till you’re thirsty, damage has already been done to your soul.  If you know what’s good for you, you’ll take a sip every chance you get.
           
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14
 
Dene Ward