Misunderstood

Loneliness and misunderstanding are the chronic companions of the chronically ill. They do not fit in because their bodies do not adjust to environments the way normal people do. They get upset over "nothing" because of the cumulative effect of an intolerable life. The "nothing" may not even be sensed by the normal, since they are normal. But "nothing," like toxic perfume, too much light, a food allergy, etc., is something real and painful to the abnormal.

The normal, so often lacking in empathy, may even attack the abnormal, since the chronically ill cannot be fixed and may not even benefit from one's good will. Changing someone's flat tire takes time and effort, but can be done. Making a chronically ill person happier is not the same. Good intensions often lead to bad results.

The normal may even exclude and marginalize the abnormal they supposedly wanted to help. The normal get frustrated when their brand of "help" doesn't help the abnormal. So, they turn on the subjects of their purported good will, thus further immiserating the already miserable.

What is the answer to this? There is no simple answer. The closest I can come to any advice is to lament with the lamentable, listen to their pain, find out what they think might help them, or be willing not to help, but simply be their friend, come what may. Then cry out to God to do something.

The Pain of Prayer

Jesus called his followers to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him. This is the cross-life. It is the only entry into the abundance life Christ promised. Yet it involves suffering and hard work (not to earn salvation, but in following the Savior). Part of the pain is prayer.

Prayer, especially as praise and thanksgiving, can be joyful--communion with God as he reveals his goodness. But prayer can be hard and agonizing work. It often is for me. I must deny myself to pray over worries and concerns regarding myself, others, and this fallen and bleeding world, to keep praying when nothing seems to be happening, when my thought wander. Yet Jesus said to his disciples before his own supreme suffering, "Could you not pray for one hour?" How many of us in America today pray for one hour at a time, or even one hour a week? I mean time dedicated only to prayer, not prayer throughout the day or ten second prayer before a meal.

Jesus said we should not make a spectacle of our prayer, as did the Scribes and Pharisees, but how do we pray with feeling and intelligence publicly in a way that reveals our anguished yearning for the greater in-breaking of God's Kingdom? How often do we weep over the world's woes as we pray--in the manner of Jeremiah?In hedonistic American, where for so many, the principal values are personal peace and affluence (Francis Schaeffer), we tend to avoid the difficult and medicate the painful at all costs. Yet the gospel calls us to embrace certain kinds of pain--the pain of struggling against a sinful world and self--for the sake of the greater good of the Kingdom of God.

Hope for Liberia

This is off the topic, but a matter of great concern to me.

Many Christian ministries and churches are being hit by the economic recession. Hoever, many of them can absorb setbacks, given their resources. Some, however, cannot rest on acquired properties or large amounts of savings.One such ministry is a visionary outreach to a war-ravaged and struggling African country called Liberia. Tony Weedor, his wife, and young daughter survived the civil war and Liberia in the late 1980s and spent three years in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast. They later came to Denver where Tony received an M. Div at Denver Seminary.

Tony's vision is to start a study center in Liberia where the deep things of Christianity can be taught to those without theological and philosophical foundations. Tony is uniquely equipped to do this. They have purchased property and have received thousands of books to start a library, which would become the only functioning library in Liberia.

However, Tony has been losing support because supporters are losing jobs. The and his wife are struggling to keep up to support their four children and their aspiring ministry to bring truth and hope back to Liberia.Please visit the CenterPoint web page, pray for this vital ministry, and consider supporting it financially, as my wife and I do.

Staging the World by TV

Television is our culture’s principal mode of knowing about itself. Therefore—and this is the critical point—how television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged—Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985).

Groothuis on Chronic Illness and Redemptive Suffering

On Wedenessay, May 27, I will be speaking in a class at Denver Seminary called Redemptive Suffering. I will address chronic illness and redemptive suffering. This is not a one-off public lecture, but part of a for-credit course, so the public is not invited. However, if you would like my lecture outline (which is substantial), please let me know. This will be the first time I have given a lecture dedicated to this issue.

My Little Friend

Recently, I met a little boy named Aidan Perkins. Aidan is the three-year old son of one of my students at Metro State College of Denver. He is smart, fun, and very active. He likes to throw things, and proceeded to do that with the small stuffed animal I gave him when he and his mother visited my office at Denver Seminary a few weeks ago. He later drew a crayon picture for me and other for my mother (who gave him some frog stickers). I think he has impressionist leanings.

Aiden began his life with a chronic illness, a rare condition known as Happle Syndrome, which is a form of dwarfism with many complications. He is the only known male to survive past birth with this deformity. Aiden is three, but is about as tall as one-year old. I hope to see him again soon and pray for him and his parents.

His parents love him deeply, but have a heavy load of doctor visits, difficult decisions, and they must deal with social situations in which inept people single Aidan out of the crowd in rude ways. His brave mother, Amanda, refused the doctor's evil advice to abort him when his uniqueness was revealed during the pregnancy. I hope you will look at his other pictures and read his story.

There is a special place in God's heart for children, as Jesus showed us. Moreover, God exhorts us to care for and bless "the least of these," of which Aidan is one (Matthew 25:31-46). As we treat them, so also we treat Jesus. Please pray for Aidan and his family. May we all welcome and love little ones like him.

Ethics Panel

At the request of an MD and Ph.D. at Porter's Adventist Hospital, today I visited an Ethics Panel meeting to see if I would be interested in serving on it. This would give me some inside exposure to the moral world of hospitals from the side of the doctors, chaplains, and nurses. I am interested in them, but they need to decide upon me in light of some other community folks outside of the hospital. We did an exercise with the famous "life boat" case. I don't think crisis ethics is the best path to moral wisdom, but it was fascinating to see how people considered the value of various human lives.

It goes like this: There are ten spaces on a life boat, but fifteen people who want to get on. You are given a short description, then asked to decide who should be allowed on. I voiced concern with the method of moral reflection, but said that volunteers should be solicited who would give their seat up; then children should be picked; after that a lottery should be drawn. I had never done the exercise in a group before.

I may not be asked to be on this panel, but I hope that I am. (I may have been too vocal at the first meeting.) God willing, I could contribute some analytical insights to the moral questions that they address and rub shoulders with some concrete moral issues on site. Let me know what you think of this.