Patience

Patience is the better part of love.

How?

How does one prepare for the balance of one's life when one knows it will require endless misery and decline of the one you love the most? It will engulf you in the sorrows, sickness, and despair. How can one ready oneself for the unendurable? You cannot. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," said Jesus, the Man of Sorrows.

Damn it

Flattened affect, uncommunicative, non-emphatic doctors make life miserable, no matter how "skilled" he or she may be. You are dealing with persons, Doctor X, not a collection of symptoms, damn it.

Doctor Visits

The chronically ill and their caregivers know how difficult and crucial doctor appointments are. We need wisdom, courage, and grace to listen, respond, and be present in a godly way. I pray for myself, our doctor, and my wife before, during, and after such appointments. I hope you do so as well.

Strategy

Folks: I am trying to increase my number of FB "friends," strictly for ministry purposes. (And there are some old friends I'd like to follow, too.) I want to get the word out on apologetics, ethics, culture, and more. So feel free to invite your friends to contact me. I am also on Twitter (#DougGroothuis) and have several other blogs.

Ashes

Words broken, shattered, scattered--
hurled into the burning coals,
then becoming ashes,
acres of ashes,
now chocking down into the throat
burning into the eyes.

Ashes.

Prayer

Oh sovereign and God and Triune God, raise up an anointed army of prayer ministers with spiritual discernment and the gift of supernatural healing. Shake the world of disease; replace it with restoration, joy, and evidence of the truth of your Kingdom. God, increase our faith and may we do mighty exploits in the name and power of our God. In the strong name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen and Amen.

Even in Illness and Pain...

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³ Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.--Romans 12:9-13.