Dear friends,
It was a little before 9.00am on the morning after Boxing Day. We were getting ready to visit our son for a couple of days, when the phone rang. The GP practice wanted me in to see the doctor at 9.40. “It is rather important”, said the receptionist in response to my reluctance to change my plans. So the visit had to be put on hold. The doctor was concerned about a blood-test result and arranged for me to have another one immediately, together with an ECG. A long wait for the equipment to be available ensued, and I got home just before lunch; but I had to wait until 6.00pm for the blood-test result. Plans disrupted. Results OK but I was to have another blood-test and ECG in a week’s time. The earliest appointment would be in about two weeks. The day came, the tests were done but needed to be repeated – to be quite sure. That meant about two hours in the surgery with plans for the weekly shop afterwards also put on hold. The outcome of that is another GP appointment with another blood-test and ECG after the weekend!
Am I complaining? No, not at all! Yes, altered plans are disappointing, long waits are frustrating, uncertainties can be stressful. But that is a very small price to pay for having a potentially serious condition thoroughly investigated and knowing that one is being cared for.
We put a lot of store by our physical health; but what of our spiritual health? In Psalm 139 the psalmist acknowledges that God knows all about him and that he is never away from God’s presence. He recognizes that he is “fearfully and wonderfully made” and that God knows exactly how long his life is going to be. Worshipping such a God raises in his heart an intense hatred of evil: “If only you would slay the wicked, O God!”
But he is mindful also of his own need of the ‘Divine GP’ and of a thorough investigation:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting”. (Ps 139:23,24)
Let us put everything and anything on hold in order to let the Lord search us and test us, in order to lead us in the way everlasting.
Your brother in Christ,
PS The doctor has given me the “all clear” (Praise the Lord!) and so has the Lord. See Romans 5:1 but consider also Romans 6:1,2.