• Dene's Blog
  • About Dene
  • Contact Dene
  • Dene's Recipes
  • Dene's Books
  • Dene's Classbooks
  • Gallery
  • Recommended Sites
  • FAQ & Tutorial
  Flight Paths

May I Prod You?

10/29/2015

0 Comments

 
That’s what my doctor asked a couple of weeks after one of my eye surgeries.  He is a very proper Englishman and has an odd way of phrasing things at times, at least to my American ears, but that one still caught me off-guard.
 
           “May I prod you?”

           “With what?” I blurted out, nonplussed.  Since I am a country girl I suppose all I could think of were cattle prods.

            As it turns out, the scleral flap he had placed inside my eye to control the drainage through the shunt was not situated exactly right.  He needed to move it, and the only way to do so was to “prod” my eyeball. 

           He took two six inch long cotton swabs, eased them into my eye socket over the top of my eyeball and, while watching the progress through a lighted scope, proceeded to mash down on that eye for all he was worth.  At least that’s what it felt like, but perhaps that was because that eye still had a fresh incision.  As you can imagine, I sat as still as I could.  Doctors always tell you not to put Q-tips in your ears.  I wonder what my other doctors would have thought about two big ones sticking out of my left eye socket.  A friend was with me and witnessed this a little uncomfortably.  “Almost lost my lunch,” I think was what she said, “but the young resident watching the procedure looked grayer than I felt.”

            Eventually the internal flap moved a millimeter or so and he was pleased.  “Sorry,” he said.  “I know that was uncomfortable.”  Indeed, I thought, somewhat “Britishly.”  After all these years he is wearing off on me.

            We are prodded often in our lives, and like me at that moment, it is always our choice whether or not to allow it.  Too many times we make the wrong choices.  “He made me mad,” is inaccurate.  What happened is, I let him make me mad.  I allow the words and actions of others to create wrong reactions in me.  I allow the pressures of society to push me into bad decisions.  I allow temptation to overcome me, instead of me overcoming it.  And in every case it is no one’s fault but my own, because the choice was mine.

            How do I know?  Because when there comes a time of good prodding, good provocation--let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, Heb 10:24—then I ignore it when it is not what I want to do.  If one is my choosing, then so is the other.

            Satan prods us all the time.  Sometimes he uses circumstances; sometimes he uses people; sometimes he uses ideologies.  It is always up to us to recognize the true source of those things and choose to ignore it.  Instead we must find those who urge us toward the good, encouraging proper attitudes and actions through example or teaching.

            Just like those cotton swabs pushing on the outside of my eyeball affected what was happening on the inside, provocation works on the heart and the attitudes.  In the final analysis it is up to us to make the right decisions.  Just who is asking, “May I prod you?”  Is it the Lord, or is it Satan?  To which one will I listen?  What will I choose to do?
 
[Love] does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own, is not provoked, takes no account of evil, 1 Cor 13:5.
 
Dene Ward
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Author
    Dene Ward has taught the Bible for more than  forty years, spoken at women’s retreats and lectureships, and has written both devotional books and class materials. She lives in Lake Butler, Florida, with her husband Keith.


    Categories

    All
    A Wives Series
    Bible People
    Bible Study
    Birds & Animals
    Book Reviews
    Camping
    Children
    Cooking Kitchen
    Country Life
    Discipleship
    Everyday Living
    Faith
    Family
    Gardening
    Grace
    Guest Writer
    History
    Holiness
    Humility Unity
    Materialism
    Medical
    Music
    Prayer
    Psalms
    Salvation
    Trials

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly