Looking Forward, Looking Back

In my never ending quest to provide helpful and useful information that can improve the quality of the lives of our prayer supporters, I would like to share a few lessons learned from the waiting room at the hospital where Susan had her surgery on Friday.

1. Avoid prolonged sitting in the chairs provided in Latin America hospitals. While the paralysis is not permanent, it is uncomfortable. Even sadists must have useful employment... we now know they design hospital furniture in Costa Rica.

2. Always have companions with whom you can wait. Seriously. It was a joy to have Kari with me on Friday even though she now talks like a secondary school teacher. Considering how well I got on with my own Jr. High and Sr. High teachers (or, didn't!), I feel like I have come a long way.

3. No matter how long you wait, the doctor will show up when you have stepped out for a few minutes. Possible solutions: Eat no food, drink no liquids and have yourself catheterized before your spouse begins the surgery. I will admit that this is uncomfortable, but at the very least you
will be able to talk to the surgeon or attending physician. (The doctor did talk with Kari.)

4. Remember, in Latin America, births and surgeries often take place in the same facility and on the same floor. This means there are two types of people waiting: (mostly) young family members waiting for the new baby and (mostly) older folks having incredibly nasty things done to loved ones. This is kind of like putting committed Democrats and Republicans in the same coffee shop... at election time.

I was reminded of something that I read this week. In Ezra 3:12 it says, "But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy." On the day the new
foundations of the ruined temple were laid in Jerusalem after seventy years in exile, the reactions of the generations were markedly different. The young people were happy, even excited. The old folks were dismayed. Their cheeks wore no smiles, but were bathed in tears. They remembered the glory of the former temple.

Young people look forward; old folks look back. Youth embraces the future, where most of its life lies; old age thinks about the past, where most of its life has gone.

One of the great truths of Christianity is that we need both the young and the "more mature". Enthusiasm without experience can lead to new efforts crashing in flames. Experience without enthusiasm can often mean the new efforts never take off.

Having younger people waiting with Kari and me was a gentle reminder of the joys of life, even while Susan experienced some of the frustrations of other realities.