"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 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
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