I saw a new tech at the eye clinic the last time I was there.  Most of the others know me by sight and name, but this one couldn’t pronounce my name, so I knew she had not been there long, and certainly I had never been prepped by her before. 

            She nearly dropped my chart and said, “Wow!  This is a huge one.  Have you been coming here all your life?”  No, just eleven years now.  If I had been going there my whole life, the chart would have been in volumes instead of just three inches thick.

            You see, everything to do with my eyes is in that chart—every test, every procedure, every surgery, every referral, every appointment of which there have been as many as three dozen in one year.  The doctor regularly writes two or three pages of notes at every visit. 

            That always makes me think of that other book being written that does cover my lifetime.  I know there are pages in it I would love to remove.  If I want them removed, imagine how a holy and righteous God feels about them.  Doesn’t that make it even more amazing when we realize that He has taken out so many?    I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed you, Isa 44:22.   I hope when He finished blotting out the bad, it wasn’t totally empty, that there was at least a page or two of good left.

            We sometimes seem to have that mistaken belief, that God has all the good stuff written on one side and all the bad written on the other, and that as long as there is more good than bad, we’re safe.  Wrong.  If He has any bad pages left, that means we haven’t repented of those evil things.  Sin is so bad that it only takes one unforgiven sin to cost us our souls.  When I say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he has committed, therein shall he die, Ezek 33:13.  We simply don’t understand the enormity of sin when we treat any of them as small and inconsequential. 

            The next time you visit the doctor, take a look at that chart.  How large is it?  Imagine one a hundred times bigger, and then remember that probably a million or so pages have been removed due to the grace of God, and rejoice.

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works…And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire, Rev 20:11,12,15.

Dene Ward

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            I knew he was wrong.  I had bought more Aleve just the week before, yet Keith was fussing because we had run out and I needed it after surgery.  I pulled myself up out of the chair, went into the bathroom, sat in the floor and began systematically emptying the cabinet under the lavatory, determined to prove him wrong.  No Aleve.  Four bottles of Advil, but no Aleve. 

            So later in the evening Keith handed me the pharmacy flyer.  On the sixth page I said, “Aha!” and showed him the ad.

            He gave me a funny look.  “Don’t you dare buy any more Advil,” he said. 

            I yanked the paper back and looked again.  Sure enough, there was an Advil ad where seconds before I was certain I had seen an Aleve ad.

            “Well,” he muttered, “now we know how we wound up with so much Advil.”

            Please don’t tell me you haven’t done the same thing; it will ruin my illusions.

            Yet too many times we do this with the scriptures, and the practice is not new. 

            If anyone thought they knew God’s Word, it was the scribes, Pharisees, and priests.  Yet Jesus told them in John 5:38, 39, You have not his word abiding in you: for whom he sent, him you believe not. You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me.  Notice:  Searching the scriptures is not the same thing as abiding in them.  They searched the scriptures, just as we claim to do, and still didn’t see what was right in front of their noses.  Here is the problem:  You must want to see the Truth before you can see it.

            I wanted to see a sale for Aleve.  The fact that both products started with a capital A, had five letters, including L and V in each, and each came in a blue or blue-ish carton did not make them the same thing.  My pharmacy was not going to give me one for the price of the other, or allow a coupon for one to be used on the other. 

            Do you think it is easy to give up long held beliefs?  I once taught a class where I gave evidence that something they had heard all their lives might not be right.  The tenacity with which they held on to that old belief, trying to find excuses to still believe it, was amusing because it was something that did not really matter.  Yet these were honest women who had time and time again shown a willingness to accept a newly discovered truth.  If that can happen so easily to the honest and sincere, just imagine what might happen if you went into your Bible study having already decided what you wanted to find. 

            You may wind up with a bottle of Advil instead of Aleve, and it just might make a big difference.

But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears that they might not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which Jehovah of hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets: therefore there came great wrath from Jehovah of hosts, Zech 7:11,12.

Dene Ward

            We are a self-centered and selfish culture.  If you think that has not found its way into the church, you are wrong.  If you think it hasn’t found its way into your own heart, you are probably wrong again.  Have these words ever left your mouth?  “No one came to see me when I was sick/injured/in the hospital?”  There is your evidence right there.

            God meant for us to minister to others every day and in every circumstance of life.  Too often, if we see our lives as a ministry at all, we see it as periods of service broken up by periods when we cannot serve—for example, when we are ill.  In other words, when things don’t come easily, when things are not perfect, we are “on break” or “out to lunch.” 

            If anyone had an excuse for taking a break, it was Paul while he was in prison.  Yet he tells the Philippians that he was fulfilling his mission to preach the gospel, “this grace,” even while imprisoned, Phil 1:5-7.  God recently taught us this lesson of perpetual ministry in a way we will not soon forget.

            Keith had major surgery in May that kept him in the hospital five days.  In fact, it kept me in with him since I can more easily communicate with this deaf spouse of 40 years than anyone else can, and I took care of many basic nursing chores too.  

            We have always made it a point to treat service people as people, not personal slaves or furniture.  Many waitresses have told us they remember us from earlier visits precisely because of that.  We tried to do the same with the hospital medical staff.  We didn’t complain; we didn’t make demands; we took care of our own needs as often as possible, and said please and thank you when we had to ask for something.  We never really thought about that—it’s just something we do because the Lord would have us treat everyone kindly and with respect.

            One night one of the nurses took me aside and asked about our “religion.”  “There’s something different about you,” she said, and gave me an opening to talk with her about the Lord and our church family. 

            Another night one of the nurses stayed in our room talking to us far longer than she needed in order to accomplish her task.  Finally she said with a sigh, “I need to go check on the others, but I’ll be back to talk more when I can.”

            Yet another day, one of the nurses who had been with us for three days was leaving for four days off, and knew that she wouldn’t see us again.  She made a point to come say good-bye. 

            While we were there we handed out tracts and blog cards.  We wrote down church addresses and website addresses.  We gave out email addresses.  Although we had taken those things with us “just in case,” I was shocked at how many we were able to give out, at how many people wanted to talk.  We thought we needed their care, but God showed us how to give it right back.

            What is happening in your life right now?  Don’t assume that you cannot serve when you are physically indisposed.  Don’t hang an “out to lunch” sign on your life because you have too much going on right now to pay attention to anyone else.  What did Jesus do while he was hanging on the cross?  How many did he minister to?  His mother, a thief, the very men who drove the nails, and all of us as he died for our sins.

            Jesus expects us to live as he did, thinking of others’ needs first.  If you have done it long enough, it comes without thought, even in turbulent times, painful times, sorrowful times.  The trick is to do it while things are good.  Do it in the grocery store.  Do it on the freeway.  Do it at school and work and when you speak to your neighbor.  It must become natural in order to come automatically in trying circumstances.  Any difficulty you have, especially when things are easy, is a telling factor—it shows how little you have been working on it.

            Service, first, last, always--and regardless of circumstances—that is the motto of a true disciple of Christ.

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ, Philippians 1:12-13.

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak, Ephesians 6:18-20.

Dene Ward

You know that fellow who pulled out in front of you yesterday like he didn’t see you?  Maybe he didn’t.  In Florida it is legal to drive if one eye can be corrected to 20/40 and the other 20/200, or both at 20/70.  There came a point before my last surgery when I quit driving for awhile, not because I was no longer legal, but because I no longer felt safe.  It’s one thing to value your independence enough to risk your own life; it’s another to risk someone else’s.

            There are times in my life as a Christian that I must make a similar choice.  The world may have a list of things they think a Christian should or shouldn’t do which are not actually spelled out in the scriptures.  I may have brothers and sisters in the Lord with the same mistaken ideas.  In an ideal world, we are all packaged in bubble wrap—nothing anyone else does effects us.  Unfortunately, since Adam and Eve were banned from Eden, the world is no longer ideal.

            The Lord never meant for the weak to rule the church, which is what happens when we allow every little “that offends me” to determine the actions of the church.  For some reason those people only read half of Romans 14:3:  “Let not he who eats [meats sacrificed to idols] set at nought him who does not,” while ignoring, “and let not he who does not, judge him who does, for God has received him.”  “Offend” in the older versions means “sin.”  Anyone who uses “I’m offended” to get his way must, by definition of the word agree that first, he is sinning, and second, he is a weaker brother according to that passage,   Maybe I am being cynical, but it seems to me a lot of people would complain a whole lot less if someone pointed that out to them.

            If we all simply refrained from taking part in things we are not comfortable with instead of raising a ruckus every time, the church would, in fact, come much closer to the ideal community Christ gave his life for.  Don’t you think that Simon the Zealot and Matthew the publican, two ideologically polar opposites, still had some fundamental differences even after three years of serving the Lord?  Yet they put them aside to try and save the world.  The problem is that we think our likes and dislikes are more important than the Divine mission we were given by God.

            Like those two martyred apostles, I must occasionally make the decision to give up my rights for the sake of someone’s soul.  No, I cannot worry about the busybodies who observe my life through a telescope just looking to find a flaw.  No matter how hard I try, they will eventually succeed in their task.  And no, we must not allow the mission of the church to be set aside for the stubborn few.  But the question is, what about the good and honest hearts that I personally may affect for the worst?  Driving down my chosen course may be lawful, but is it safe to those around me?  A good question to consider as we go through the day.

And when they came to Capernaum, those who received the half-shekel came to Peter and said, Doesn’t your teacher pay the half-shekel?  He said, Yes.  And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke first to him saying, What do you think, Simon?  The kings of the earth, from whom do they receive toll or tribute, from their sons or from strangers?  And when he said, From strangers, Jesus said to him, Therefore the sons are free.  But lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first comes up; and when you open his mouth you shall find a shekel.  Take that and give unto them for me and you, Luke 17:24-27.

 

Dene Ward

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            Now that it has become more dangerous, I don’t walk with the dogs for exercise any longer.  I trip over too many invisible roots, step in too many hidden holes, roll along on too many sneaky little pine cones, and therefore either fall or come close too many times a week.  Then there are the snakes with their natural camouflage.  I wouldn’t see one before it struck.

            So Keith has bought me an elliptical machine.  Actually this gadget is pretty neat.  It tells me how many miles I have gone and how many calories I have burned, which is a little disappointing.  Oh, for a workout that burns 500 calories in 20 minutes without making you feel like you might die any second!

            But it’s not the same as walking outside.  I miss the fresh air, the waves of wildflower colors in the field, the butterflies flitting across my path, the scent of jasmine wafting along in the breeze.  I miss my little furry companions romping on ahead of this tortoise of a human.  I will say this for the machine, though—it is a lot closer to the five mile jog I did some twenty-five years ago than the three mile stroll I have taken with the dogs in the past few years.  Whew!

            The apostle John called life a walk with God.  If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, 1 John 1:7.  Enoch and Noah both walked with God in a faithful life, Gen 5:22; 6:9.  Paul tells us The Lord is at hand, Phil 4:5.  It does help us get through our trials to know he is with us constantly as we go. 

            Sometimes though we act like this walk is what matters the most.  It isn’t.  This life is the elliptical machine, not the real walk. 

            Similarly, we often make our lives the destination instead of the walk.  We forget that life is just a motel room as we make the trek.  Maybe some of us have circumstances in life that make our temporary inn an upscale model, but it is still just that—temporary.  You don’t put down roots in a Motel 6.  You don’t even put down roots in a Hilton.  You certainly don’t file a change of address with the post office.  And so our roots are not on this earth.

            God wants this life to be good, but we need to remember that no matter how well life here may be going, it is still not the one that matters.  There is another walk coming, a walk that is not a journey at all, but a permanent home in a paradise where God will once again visit his people just like He used to every evening in that original home he made.  We make this walk every day, so we can take that one forever.

Yet you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy.  The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the Book of Life.  I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels, Rev 3:3,4.

Dene Ward

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After one of my several eye surgeries I was actually examined by two veterinarians.  Remember, I am one of the prime teaching tools at the University of Florida Medical School.  These young Dr Doolittles were doing research in pain.  Their patients cannot tell them how they feel, so they were visiting human post-op cases to ask how they felt after various types of surgery.  It was the only way to know how the animals were feeling.

            My doctor took them to three different patients, an easy case, a moderate case, and then me—the extreme.  I answered their questions with accompanying explanations by my physician, shook their hands, and on they went.  Maybe some child’s pet bunny rabbit will have an easier time of it because of a ten minute delay in my own case—and putting up with a few jokes afterward.

            Isn’t that what Jesus did for us?  Well, no, not exactly.  Instead of asking a few questions, he went through the surgery himself.  How else was Deity to understand temptation, fear, pain, anguish, sorrow, desperation, or even relatively petty things like hunger, thirst, and weariness?  He did it when he counted not being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, Phil 2:6.  He did it by being tempted in all points like we are, Heb 4:15.  It was really the only way.

            And now He knows.  Now He can tell His Father in words Deity can understand what it is like to be human.   Then He can turn around and tell us how to overcome, how to persevere, how to be faithful even to the point of death, Rev 2:10 because he understands our problems too.

            Don’t make His sacrifice be for nothing.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  This same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, John 1:1-3, 14.

Dene Ward

(For hints, help, and instructions on using this blog, click on the FAQ/Tutorial page on the left sidebar)

(For hints, help, and instructions on using this blog, click on the FAQ/Tutorial page on the left sidebar)

            Shortly after this latest surgery, when I had grown weary of sitting in a dark house alone day after day, I donned a couple of pairs of sunglasses, one on top of the other, and a hat with a broad visor, picked up my walking sticks, and stepped outside.  It was still morning so as long as I faced west, the light was tolerable.

            The dogs heard me coming and met me at the door, bumping each other out of the way vying for the first pat, tails wagging so hard and fast they might have been declared lethal weapons.  When they saw my intent to head out into the open, they took off in that direction, Magdi stiffly romping, an old dog briefly reminded of her youth, and Chloe ripping circles around her, leaving skid marks in the grass.

            Right after an eye surgery, the operated-on eye sees nothing but a blur of color for a few weeks.  Although the two eyes are separate entities, each with its own plumbing and wiring systems, the other eye experiences some “sympathy pains” and its vision is not as clear as usual either.  While I could miss the furniture, so to speak, details were difficult.  As far as I could tell there were no individual blooms on the crape myrtles—each was simply one big blotch of color.  There were no leaves on the trees—they were just big puffs of green, exactly the way a child would draw them.  There were no individual blades of grass—the ground was just painted green, except way out in the field where someone had spilled a bucket of yellow paint.

            I headed for that spot, my two bodyguard/playmates scampering around ahead and behind, sniffing up grasshoppers the size of mascara tubes.  Our ten paws were soon soaked with dew and breaded with sand. When I got close enough to see my beautiful spot of bright yellow and knelt down, it was a thick oval patch of dandelion blooms about ten feet by six feet, between the mown field and the back fence.  Dandelions!  I laughed out loud.   My spot of beauty was what most people consider bothersome weeds.  There ought to be a lesson here, I thought, and maybe this is it.

            Not many of us are long stemmed red roses in God’s garden, let alone rare and delicate orchids.  I have met some fresh-faced petunias whose sincerity is obvious, some formal and well-dressed gladioli who can stand before a crowd and speak without fear, some pleasant and reliable carnations who seem able to function in practically any situation, and some sturdy daisies with a lot of staying power.  But some of us are just dandelions, not very popular, not very talented, all too soon developing a cap of fuzzy gray hair.  So do we use that as our excuse?

            Do we sit back and wait for those other blooms to catch everyone’s attention and take care of the business at hand?  Do we still do nothing, even those times in our lives when we are the only blossom in a field full of tares and thistles?  Even a dandelion looks pretty good there.

            That little patch of dandelions gave me the first real laugh I’d had in weeks.  It got me out of a dark, lonely house into a world of sunlight (safely at my back), and a cool breeze filled with birdsong.  My soul recovered more in five minutes than my body had in the whole week before.  What might my day have been like without those humble little plants?

            God has a place for all of us and he won’t accept excuses for doing nothing.  It doesn’t matter if someone else is better known, better liked, or even a whole lot more able, especially if those someones are not present when a need arises.  Stop looking at yourself and look around you—self-absorption never accomplished anything. 

            God is the owner of this garden and He doesn’t mind a dandelion or two.  In fact, it seems like He made more of them than any other flower.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work nor thought nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol to which you are going, Eccl 9:10.

Dene Ward

           I had an up close and personal encounter with a wildflower a couple of years ago.  When we plant a new bed out in the field, we baby it the first year.  The point is for them to grow up scattered in the grasses and among other wildflowers in a natural way, but if you don’t get them off to a good start, they won’t stand a chance with all the competition out there for ground space and rainwater.

            So I was weeding the latest patch, which we had let go far beyond the normal time span.  I had difficulty even finding some of the small plants amid all the waist high grass and weeds.  I had nearly finished, was soaking wet and black up to my elbows, when I noticed one more low-growing weed and bent over to pull it.  I did not see the bare stalk of the wildflower right between my feet, leafless and flowerless, standing three feet high.  I did not know it was there until, as I bent over, it slid right into my eye like a hot wire.  Which eye?  The one which most lately has been operated on, the one with the shunt, the capsular tension ring, and the silicone lens, the one that already hurts the most. 

            The doctor and I spent nearly two weeks fixing me up after this little mishap, checking to see if there was any permanent damage, checking to see if the shunt had been knocked out of place, checking for infection, and worse, for plant fungus.  As it turns out, all I had was a hematoma and a laceration, but it was an exciting couple of weeks.

            That was too close and personal an encounter with a flower, but we can never be too close and personal with God.  I have had to learn that.  The prevailing sentiment many years ago seemed to be that we did not want to do or say anything that might make someone apply a religious pejorative to us indicating belief in something other than correct Bible teaching about God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.  Instead of saying, “I’m blessed,” instead of saying, “God took care of me,” indeed, instead of attributing anything to the providence of God, we said, “I’m lucky.”  We wouldn’t want someone to get the wrong idea, would we?

            Where did we come up with that?  Read some of David’s psalms.  He gave God the credit for everything.  Read Hannah’s song, or Moses and Miriam’s after crossing the Red Sea.  Since when don’t the people of God tell everyone what God has done for them?

            Read some of Paul’s sermons.  He does not seem a bit concerned that someone might use what he says to give credence to false teaching.  “You know that idol you have out there?” he asks the Athenians, “the one to the Unknown God?  Let me tell you about him.”  He tells Felix, But this I confess to you that after the Way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers, Acts 24:14.  It didn’t matter a bit what people called it, as long as he could talk about it.  In fact, he used their misconceptions as opportunities to preach the Gospel.

            Maybe that is my problem—I don’t want to talk about it.  It makes me uncomfortable.  It has nothing to do with whether someone gets the wrong idea about the Truth, but everything to do with me feeling ill at ease, or downright embarrassed.  I don’t want to be called a religious fanatic and certainly not a “Holy Roller!”  Yes, I want a close, personal relationship with God, as long as no one else knows about it.

            But here is the deal:  If I am too embarrassed by my relationship with God to even acknowledge it, then He won’t acknowledge me either, and I am the one with everything to lose. 

            Go out there today and say or do something that will make someone else curious enough to ask you a question.  Then open your mouth and unashamedly tell them how wonderful an up close and personal relationship with your Creator and Savior really is.

Everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in Heaven.  But whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in Heaven, Matt 10:32,33.

Dene Ward

          When people start doing things to your eyes, taking things out and putting things in, cutting into them, pouring chemicals into them, you start seeing strange things.

            A week after one of the operations I had at the Cincinnati Eye Institute I started seeing gold circles as thin as thread right in front of me.  At first I thought I was going through some sort of spider web, although I had never seen a golden one to be sure, but I started waving my hand in front of my face trying to brush it away right in the hotel lobby.  When I looked up, the girl behind the front desk was watching me over her glasses, her eyebrows trying to crawl into her hairline.  She managed to put on her professional face then and check us out. 

            Even now I sometimes see sparkling lights in dark corners, and furtive movements on the periphery of my vision.  I was sitting in the assembly one Sunday when I was positive I saw rats running along the housing for the indirect lighting on the walls near the ceiling.  After I had similar experiences seeing things in the blinds by my chair and out the window next to the dining table, I finally realized it was just another visual anomaly resulting from all the surgery and other treatments I have endured lately.

            But the more frightening problem is the black spot—a “pressure phenomenon,” as one resident calls it.  When I see it, I know the pressure is up.  Some days it is bigger than others, also a bad sign.  The pinprick-sized spot becomes a nail hole, or even a bolt hole.  The first time I saw it, I thought it was a gnat, and I went around all day trying to shoo it away.  Finally it dawned on me that this gnat was always in the same place.  I bet I looked pretty funny those few hours before I figured it out.

            I wish that spot would go away.  On days when it does, I feel a lot better both physically and mentally.  Weariness and stress seem to be the worst aggravators of the problem.  It reminds me of Lady Macbeth, who succumbed to such guilt over prodding her husband to murder the king that she saw a spot of blood on her hands, and no matter how many times she wiped them, it would not come off.  “Who would have thought an old man could bleed so much?” she asks during her famous speech about “the spot.”

            We have a spot too—one that will not go away, no matter how many times we wipe it, no matter how many times we wash our hands before the world as Pilate did, no matter how strong the soap we use.. 

            Nowadays, mental health experts recognize the signs of guilt and the problems it causes.  Their solution is to deny the existence of sin and therefore, remove guilt altogether.  Now that’s handy, isn’t it?  All I need to do to avoid feeling bad about doing wrong is believe that it is right.  So who gets to decide what is right?  What if I don’t like your version of sins, especially if it makes your sins legal and mine illegal?  Only One is qualified to decide what is right and what is wrong.

            And, coincidentally, only one thing will make that guilt go away, and only one person can do it for us.  In fact, He requires it of anyone who wants to follow Him.  No matter how many times we tell ourselves that wrong is actually right, if we don’t let Him rid us of the spot of sin, the guilt will eat us alive just as it did that fictional Lady. 

            Get rid of the spot while you still can.  There will come a time when the offer is rescinded.

 Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it, that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish, Eph 5:25-27.

Dene Ward

            Do you want to know what the word “relative” means?  Just follow me around for awhile and listen to the doctors. 

            Many years ago we moved a thousand miles and I went to a new ophthalmologist for the first time.  Unfortunately, my file did not make it before the appointment.  The doctor looked at my eyes and the contacts I was wearing at the time and shook his head.  “Who fit these?  He obviously doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

            A week later I returned to his office.  He had received the file and read it through, noting the nanophthalmic eyes and the incredibly steep corneas.  “Your doctor is a genius,” he pronounced.  “I don’t know how he did this.  You shouldn’t even be able to wear contact lenses, but had he not been able to do it, you would be blind by now.”  Nothing about my eyes changed, but the doctor’s opinion certainly did.

            Then there was the difference between the lens implant surgeon in Cincinnati and my glaucoma surgeon.  The first considered the lens implant almost a failure because my nanophthalmus had skewed the formulas and I still could not see well.  The second considered it a success because I could still see at all. 

            Only a few weeks ago, I had a visit with the retina guru after a “retina event” as they called it in the glaucoma hall.  The tech there declared it impossible for the doctor to be able to see into “these tiny little pupils.  You will most certainly need to be dilated.”  (This, in spite of the fact that my chart is stamped in large, red, capital letters DO NOT DILATE.)   The retina doctor knew better than to dilate someone with my symptoms and overruled her.  Later, when the glaucoma doctor looked into my eyes, he said, “What are they complaining about?  These are nice big pupils.”  Of course, he has been dealing with them for years.

            You see, good for me is bad for you, at least at the ophthalmologist’s office.    

            Many things are like that.  If you’re from the north, you think Florida winters are warm and springs are hot.  If you are from Florida, you think the northeast is arid.  You would probably turn to dust the minute you walked into Arizona.  And because we understand the concept of relativity, we have a tendency not to see the awfulness of sin, particularly our own.  I’m not bad, we think.  I haven’t murdered anyone, I haven’t stolen from anyone.  I don’t lie—well, at least not big black lies.  And there we go excusing ourselves because we can always find someone worse than we are.  Paul, in another context, mentions those who measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, concluding that they are without understanding, 2 Cor 10:12.  We are too, if we think we can get to Heaven by comparing our lives to anything other than God’s standard

            Nothing is relative when it comes to sin.  When we think we can decide which sins need to be repented of and which don’t, when we think we can choose a standard of our own, whether a person or a personal credo, when we think we are the ones who get to draw the line, God will not tolerate even what we consider the tiniest of sins.  To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a sin by any other name will still rise as a stench in the nostrils of God.

            There is nothing relative about sin.  It is a theory that will always prove false.

For whoever shall keep the whole law yet stumble in one point, he has become guilty of it all.  For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill.  Now if you do not commit adultery but you do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.  So speak and so do as men who are to be judged by a perfect law of liberty, James 2:10-12.

Dene Ward

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