My last post (Section 3) - which was about moving from "ignorance" and "denial" to "acceptance" - ended with these observations
"We need to come to the same point of accepting that there is "bad news" - denial - blaming and all that stuff doesn't change the fact that “I am responsible for my situation” - it is up to me to do something about it.
And there is good news -- For our physical problem there are (often) health restoring) medical treatments and ..... (more importantly) ....
For the “spiritually broken hearts” God has promised a 'new heart'"
This is a draft of the next section on "Diagnosis" (I may update it as I develop the thought and any comments by readers would be helpful)
Knowing there was a problem and GOOD NEWS that (potential) treatment was available wasn't enough. The specific problem needed to be diagnosed.
-- 5th comparison: I took (and failed) a stress test on
January 4th. Any illusion that there really wasn’t a problem was gone but we
still didn’t have a definite diagnosis – getting that required further testing.
– I wished it would happen faster because it was very stressful not knowing -- I wanted to know even though it was
possible the news wouldn’t be good.
A song
by Toby Keith contains the line “I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then” and , of course your mind goes in that direction but I believe that “knowing is always better
than not knowing” (and as I said in an earlier post whether I knew or not didn't change the reality of my situation and the danger I was in) - so I wanted to get on
with it. (I praise God that he answered your prayers.
The diagnosis was made very quickly (in less than 3 weeks on January 22).
In the spiritual
realm, once we see that there is a problem and we turn to God for answers the
diagnosis can be immediate. No waiting – worrying – wondering what it is and
whether it can be fixed. The diagnosis
is already known – we are “out of step” with God. But it seems (from my personal experience and
observation) that very few people easily and immediately accept that God is the
answer. There is a struggle between “the ignorance is bliss” state that they were
in and the “freedom given by truth” that
can be theirs. When we see people in that struggle we pray, we encourage and we
wait because it’s their journey and as
much as we would like to we can’t “force”
the process.
... to be continued
God Bless
Charlie
