Friday, September 29, 2023
Feasts of Saint Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, archangels
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
The first kind of primary care
I heard a loud voice in heaven say, “Now have salvation and power come, and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed.
I worked my heart and lungs, just a little, at cardiac rehab yesterday. Three years ago during a stress test at Christie Clinic, I felt my body surge into a second wind, and ever since I’ve wanted that same feeling again.
There was a problem. My EKG didn’t look right. So a heart cath was ordered, and it turned out my right artery was completely blocked. Which might have killed me, but it had developed a number of collateral arteries that were working great. I guess those were the arteries that kicked my body into high gear, which felt so good.
I haven’t had that experience again. Various other parts of my heart have been stented (LAD) and replaced (aortic valve). But the pathways through the right ventricle flow and flow.
With all the attention my heart has received, I forget there are other parts of my body too. At least until they make themselves known, mostly through aches and pains. But they are minor. They don’t stick around for long. I can ignore them.
So here’s my question. How many pains do I report to my doctor? I’ll be seeing Dr. Deem next week on Tuesday morning. I’ll share my summer heart stories with him, and he’ll clean the wax out of my ears. We’ll talk about the lab results. I’ll feel better after we talk.
But if something comes up between now and then, I’m reluctant to notice it. Hypochondriasis might be just around the corner. And back in Austin, doctors are ready to care for me on every corner. How much do I bring to them: 100% of what I notice, or 50%, or 10%? Maybe I just keep a list and share it with Dr. Deem or Dr. Chang (my PCP in Austin) during an annual physical?
Our friend Van works with older couples who mostly have retired from farming. Time for them to travel, right? But with a twinkle in his eye (he and his wife are about our age), Van told us that so many of his couple friends can’t go traveling because they have so many doctor appointments!
War broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
In This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness, author Frank Peretti brings these sentences to life. Our prayers strengthen the angels, and they are at last victorious. But I know pastors who have gone to prison for asking their people to pray rather than get medication. I do not know doctors who have been punished for asking their patients to take medication rather than pray.
What comes first? How do I get this straight?
Prayer can be my first kind of primary care. This doesn’t come easily when my medicine cabinet is full of pain reducers, and my phone is full of medical phone numbers.
My body and spirit are not separate, they don’t need to be treated separately, but I do want to get back to assuming the best, so to speak. That means thinking to trust God with my life before I dig out the Tylenol.
More so than with my doctor even, my conversations with God can be descriptive rather than plaintive, complaining, or demanding. I might be uncertain about talking to the doc, but there’s no question when it comes to God, God of many names, including Jehovah Rapha, God the healer. I can tell him about my pain. I can listen to his response.
Modern medical miracles belong to God, just as my pain and illness belong to him. I am beginning to trust him with both. “I am the Lord who heals you,” declares the Lord, even to the rebellious Israelites in the desert. As I trust his way of rest, his way of healing, he declares it also to me.
The huge dragon, that ancient serpent, has been conquered by the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore, rejoice you heavens, and you who dwell in them.
 (Daniel 7, Revelation 12, Psalm 138, Psalm 103, John 1)
These same texts made up the lectionary on September 29, 2022, just as they do today. Here’s last year’s devotion, same day, same texts, whole different thing.
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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