One of the curiosities in life is that when people admit a weakness, we tend to trust them more. That’s one of the reasons we’re pretty happy with Paul’s primary care physician; she will, at times, admit we need to make a course correction. She doesn’t let her ego get in the way of evidence.
She admitted recently that one of her colleagues, “a very good doctor,” appeared to be stuck and seeing another specialist was reasonable.
That doesn’t mean the specialist takes it well.
One of our complaints has been that one of Paul’s specialists seems pretty passive, as though he’s given up trying to diagnose and treat Paul’s ‘spells.’ So we’re pursuing a new course.
Dianne called this specialist to let him know our new course of action, to which he replied, what can they do that he couldn’t? That seemed like a silly question, since he hadn’t done anything for several weeks. And, being pushed, he admitted he thought these spells were something that couldn’t be treated successfully.
That was news to us. He had never even inferred that before. But it also seemed like a good reason we should get another opinion, since this doctor had decided it couldn’t be treated. He didn’t agree.
Then he pulled out his trump card: you do realize your son is severely disabled?
That was, we’re assuming, supposed to make these mysterious spells seem not so bad.
Dianne did two things over the next several days that were quite helpful. First, she didn’t tell me all that he said immediately. We’re 15 years into this, so statements like that from the doctor mostly make me tired and discouraged. But there’s still a reservoir of pride and anger (righteous and not) that wants to have justice in this present age. That could have gotten ugly since I have been known to write letters to people’s superiors, and I know what buttons to push.
The second thing Dianne did was not to engage him at all, but to reassert our new course of action and end the conversation. That was the better course.
In reflecting on it, God brought these verses of Benediction to mind:
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21
Our God is one of peace (I need to lay aside my anger and my pride), who brings people back from the dead (something a little more complicated than diagnosing a young man’s physical issues!) – and he equips us with ‘everything good’ to do his will. Paul’s spells are no mystery to him, and even as we pursue Paul’s good, God will help us do what is most pleasing to him.
And here’s the anchor: through Jesus Christ! What a promise! Another reason to trust promises and not my perceptions.
The Works of God 
How Long, Oh Lord?
Posted in commentary on January 21, 2011| 2 Comments »
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Proverbs 14:12
January 22 marks the 38th ‘anniversary’ of the decision to legalize abortion in the United States.
This website highlights abortion services available for ‘fetal anomaly.’ They include:
For the past 14 years we have terminated pregnancies for fetal abnormalities such as 1) Central Nervous System that include: holoprosencephaly, encephalocele, encephalomyelocele, hydrocephalus, Spina Bifida, holorachischisis, Dandy Walker, anencephaly, holoanencephaly, absence of corpus callosum; 2) Cardiac abnormalities that include: Primary Pulmonary Hypertension, Hypolastic left and right ventricle, holoacardius, tetraloy of Fallot, Eisenmenger’s complex, transposition of great vessels; 3) Chromosomal abnormalities that includes a) Common: trisomy 13, 18, 21, b) less common: trisomy 16, short arm and long arm deletions; 4) Skeletal abnormalities: Polydactyly, Achondroplasia, Osteogenesis imperfecta, lethal dwarfism, 5) Kidney abnormalities: Adult and Infantile Polycystic Kidney diseases, Potter’s Syndrome; 6) GI abnormalities: gastroschisis, omphalocele.
Some of the above are lethal to the child; he or she will die shortly after birth. Others, like Trisomy 21 (otherwise known as Down syndrome), include a lifetime of living with disability. And a lifetime with family and communities who both suffer and benefit from the life God has given.
Still others, like omphalocele, are not always disabling: “Complete recovery is expected after surgery for an omphalocele. However, omphaloceles often occur with other birth defects. How well a child does depends on which other conditions the child also has (Google Health).”
And they are all on a list, grouped impassionately together like groceries.
Disability does that in this culture – individual human beings created for God’s glory cease to be recognized as people, and the sum value of their lives is entirely defined by their disability. So, we eliminate a disability, not a person. But every one of those listed ‘procedures’ was done on a child, cruelly in the name of ‘compassion’ to prevent suffering in the child or the mother.
Disability is hard; I certainly understand that. But we should not wrap what is happening to our unborn children with disabilities in the pretty language of compassion, either for them or for their mothers. Once again, the strong are making permanent decisions about the interests of the weak. And the weak are being destroyed.
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