My wife had surgery yesterday. She came home today. Doing very well - amazingly well.
A friend said, "God was really with her."
I said, "Yes." I thought "duh."
I know he meant well. He probably meant something like, "God really answered the prayers of a lot of people by giving Jane a good surgeon, a rapid surgery, and what appears to be a quick recovery."
Because I'm sure he knows that God promises to be "with us always." I think "always" means "always."
And - God forbid - if something had gone wrong in the operation is the implication that God wasn't "with her"?
Lots of people (apparently) read this blog and my facebook; and over 300 are signed up for the "Praying for the Jack Hager" group on facebook...so many prayed and heard the good report.
What if they overheard my friend saying "God was really with Jane"? And what if some of those very people, upon hearing that, immediately thought of a friend or relative who died during surgery? Would they somehow think that God had taken some time off? That God said "oops"?
Again, I'm not hammering my friend.
But I am convinced we (note - we; not "you", but "we") need to be careful in our use of words..and make the time to say what we mean.
It's sort of like that cliche, "God be with you." What, pray tell, does that mean? If He is with us "always," why pray for Him to be with us?
Is it a shortcut for saying, "I pray the Lord protects you from harm during this trip...during this surgery...I pray the Lord gives you a good interview...etc etc etc.
If so...why not say what we mean?
Reminds me, in an odd way, of that great line from the great movie "The Princess Bride" - "I do not think that word means what you think it means."
By the way...not many comment on these posts as they did on xanga...I'm not going back to xanga land, but it would be nice to know you are reading...drop a comment if you would...only takes a sec
4 comments:
In the sentiment of some 17th and 18th century English writer, let us neither speak nor write any cant (not the contraction for cannot, but "cant" which are useless or meaningless words).
On another topic, I'll have to try to get a copy of THE SHELL GAME and read it sometime.
Glad to hear the surgery went well. I'm continuing to pray that the house will sell soon. Peace.
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Praise God for protecting your wife during surgery! He is good all of the time!
Aaron and I wanted to look you up and let you know that we updated the blog recently. Can you believe that we celebrated Aaron's 1 year transplant anniversary already?!?!
Your comments on the blog have been such an encouragement to us throughout Aaron's illness. It meant a lot to us that you were following his progress and praying. We appreciate you more than we can express with our words.
Just another shared peeve. I try in group prayer not to cringe or get so distracted as to count the times someone says "God be with [so-and-so]" or "God come alongside [so-and-so]" - there is so much to ask for and be grateful for, but we spend our breath with Him asking for things He's already promised and are as good as sealed and delivered.
Granted I don't think He is as annoyed with those prayers as I sometimes am. ;)
I read your posts.
By the way, we found out that our baby is a boy. At least, that's what the ultrasound tech said. If the assessment of the situation changes, my mother is going to have spent an awful lot of money on boy clothes for no reason!
~Randi
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