What Jesus Didn’t Say

I woke up with this on my mind today.  Not sure why, but thought I would share.

Luke 23:39-43

³⁹One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.^[f]“

⁴³Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

All Jesus said was , “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”  He didn’t say, “You’ve got to be pretty messed up to be here.  Before I know you’re really with me and not against me I must know…”

• “…where you stand politically. Red or Blue?”
• “…how you feel about the gay community.”
• “…if you said “The Salvation Prayer” repeating someone word for word.”
• “…whether or not you believe in creationism or evolution.”
• “…if you are going to commit to a ‘body of believers.’”
• “…,what is your stance on abortion?”
• “…that you line up with all of my core beliefs.”
• “…how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”

Point being that most of our questions have nothing to do with what truly matters when it comes to grace and salvation.  Not only is God bigger than our sins and our jaded pasts (and present), but God is bigger than our politics, our cultural belief systems, our Christian denominations.  All of these things are valid and important to us as a society and within our own convictions… one way or another.  But Christians come in many shapes, sizes and belief systems.  I think this tends to get lost.  One Christian might hang their head or shake their finger at another Christian because they’re obviously “off track” (or, say, part of a different denomination) when that person is where God has wanted them to be.

The way I see it is Faith is a journey… and he’s much too creative to make us all take the same one and end up in the same place.

The Story of Drew, Part 4

Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 in case you missed it.

The LONG Story

Part 4 – Love & Thankfulness

I blinked, opened my eyes slowly and heard a tender “Hey…”

It was Dave.

It’s hard to find the right word to explain what I felt just by hearing his voice and that one little word. Relief, Joy, Contentment, Love….  Any of those would do, but not begin to truly explain how full my heart felt.    It took just a second of time to recall every event from the last few days… it both overwhelmed me with painful memories, but gave me immense gratitude.  Thank you, Lord.  Thank you for getting me through this. My Dave, my Collin, my baby boy, Drew – I was given my life back.  I loved my life before, but now I was truly grateful – I knew I was given a gift.  My chin began to quiver and I felt a tear run down the side of my face.  Dave, of course, was right by my side and holding my hand.

I was still in the surgery room under a few layers of toasty warm blankets from head to toe.  I asked him how Drew was doing and then asked him some more questions.  I only remember this happening once, but Dave tells me we had that conversation a few more times.  I would fall back asleep, wake up and ask him the same questions again and again.   We took our time talking and I slowly woke up completely.  Dave told me he should maybe step-out and update my family.  They were all in the waiting room on bated breath and really worried about me.  I suggested we take a picture with his phone and let them know I was alright.  That’s right, I always know how to dork up a situation:

I guess I had been in surgery for 2 hours and had 2 blood transfusions because they couldn’t get the bleeding under control.  My nurse said that in 25 years of nursing she hadn’t experienced a case of HELLP that was that bad.  The doctor who had been on-call advised Dave that we should stop at two kids – that is was just too risky for me.  My regular OB told me she disagreed with her when I mentioned it, but to me it still just showed me how serious things really were at the time.

Once I was alert, they wheeled me into my new room and we got settled.  I asked Dave to go check on Drew because it had been some time since he’d been up to see him.  I really wanted to know how he was doing.  It was so hard knowing I had delivered my little baby, but he was nowhere to be seen.  And I truly had no clue when I would be able to see him.  Dave wanted to check on Drew too, but was hesitant to leave me.  I assured him it’s really what I wanted him to do.  After he left, the nurse asked me if I wanted something to drink.  She told me what they had available and I decided to go for a hot tea with creme.  ”Ah!  You take it the British way!” she said.  I do?  Uh, okay.  lol  My nurse was so great and made me feel very much a ease.  In fact, all of the high-risk nurses did.  They were so friendly and they really knew what they were doing.  When she gave me my tea it felt so good to drink!  Even at the time I thought it was a weird thing for me to take note of but later found out I had a breathing tube down my throat during surgery.  It had been irritated and the hot tea really did do it good!

My family was allowed to come in to see me… first my mom and dad and later my sisters peeked their heads in room.  (Collin was with his cousins and my brothers live out-of-state.)  It was kind of surreal. Everyone had a strange look in their eyes…kind of like a deer in the headlights with large saucer round eyes. You could tell they wanted to let me rest but HAD to see me…  had to see that I was actually okay with their own eyes.  I was given lots of love and hugs and was able to watch the process of them coming in, tentitive at first, then relaxing as we talked and ultimately leaving the room with smiles and contented sighs.  They each had there own moments of fear, prayer, tears and gratitude while they waited for news.  I’m sure I’ll never understand what they went through being on the other side of things.

The first time I got up to use the restroom was funny because I was able to look into the mirror for the first time. LOLOLOL  Oh, good times.  Delivery never agrees with me.  Some women look nice and healthy and have rosy pink cheeks.  (Makes me sick.) Yeah, not me.  I tend to look pale and poofy and, well, just gross.   And after this whole ordeal – HA!  I looked into the mirror and I swear I saw the Bride of Frankenstein!  I was shocked!  My skin was a new shade of pale and my lips had no color whatsoever from the blood loss.  My eyes had mascara underneath and my hair looked like it was in knots and like it was trying to run away from my head.  I came out and said, “Can someone help me with my hair?” because I had the IV drip and couldn’t manage with the tubes and wires.  My nurse said, “Hey!  She’s starting to care about her hair!  Things are definitely turning around!”  They did what they could, but it was too far gone and a bit of a lost cause.  Not something that really matters, but just a funny moment and memory.

I spent the rest of the evening continuing to be monitored and finally relaxing by talking with Dave and watching TV.  We would both drift in and out of sleep and both truly needed it.  I don’t remember why, maybe to allow me to rest for a bit, but it was around midnight when we finally went up to see little Drew in the NICU.

CLICK HERE FOR Part 5… The ENDING!