Skip to main content

Today

I was driving home today when I suddenly thought I had forgotten my laptop at school. If only for a second, I panicked, thinking I would not be able to plan for classes coming next week. At the same time that I felt this, however, I also remembered something from the Bible I had read earlier this week. In Acts 16, one of the most important spokespeople for Jesus was a man named Paul. In this chapter, Paul was put in prison after ordering a spirit to leave a slave who earned money for her owners by telling the future.

In the night, however, God caused the doors of Paul's prison to open. At that moment, when the jailer woke to see the cell doors open, he drew his sword to commit suicide, thinking he had allowed the prisoners to escape. Paul, however, yelled at him not to harm himself, saying that everyone was still in their cells. The man rushed in, trembling and asking what he must do to be saved. Paul then shared the gospel, and the man and his family eventually believed.

While in my own moment of panic, I thought of the jailer at the moment he drew his sword to commit suicide. When compared with what this man was facing-- possible execution at having lost his prisoners-- my own concerns about forgetting my laptop seemed silly. Life is too fleeting to allow worry to control us. Life itself is a miracle, something I often take for granted. We are more than our jobs, more than our fears, more than our talents or pleasures or selfish acts. Our lives, without those things, matter enough to stop and breathe when we begin to worry about the little things. Life is certainly more important than a missing laptop, which was in my trunk, anyway.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heroes

Although we have several examples of heroes in our day, one of the best known is of a woman named Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (“Gonja Bojaju”), who devoted her life to sustaining the “poor, sick, orphaned, and dying.” Her venue was Calcutta, India, where she served as a teacher until she began to take notice of the poverty there. Seeking to do something about it, she began an organization that consisted of just thirteen members at its inception. Called the “Missionaries of Charity,” the organization would eventually burgeon into well over 5,000 members worldwide, running approximately 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries; and caring for the orphaned, blind, aged, disabled, and poor. As her personal work expanded, she traveled to countries like Lebanon, where she rescued 37 children from a hospital by pressing for peace between Israel and Palestine; to Ethiopia, where she traveled to help the hungry; to Chernobyl, Russia, to assist victims of the nuclear meltdown there; and to ...
2 comments
Read more

The Nice Guy Fallacy

I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...
2 comments
Read more

Comparative Medical Care

One thing I'd like to understand is why there is such a difference between medical costs here and those in Haiti. At the time the book Mountains Beyond Mountains was written, in 2003, it often cost $15,000 to $20,000 annually to treat a patient with tuberculosis, while it cost one one-hundredth of that-- $150 to $200-- to treat a patient for the disease in Haiti. Even if the figures aren't completely accurate, the sheer difference would still be there. Indeed, the United States pays more per capita for medical care than any other country on Earth. My first guess for why the disparity exists is that there is a market willing and able to pay more for medical treatment, so suppliers see the demand and respond with higher prices. According to at least one doctor (go to http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2009/05/what_is_the_cause_of_excess_co.php), part of the reason is administrative prices here. People here have a higher standard of living, and so the cost of care is shifted to ...
2 comments
Read more