on caring for the dying

Our own household is back to 'normal' now, as normal as can be in our current circumstances. Life is about change, so normal is always in a state of flux in any home.

My wife returned to us this week after six weeks assisting in the care of her dying mother. My blogging has been light because I have been pulling double duty (well... maybe only one-and-a-half duty) at home while she has been gone. Precious little time is left for reading, thinking, writing and especially blogging when I am left on my own for an extended period of time! But that is another post.

The whole episode of the last six weeks heightened my regard for my dear wife. She selflessly committed herself to the needs of her mother during this time. Our two youngest and I went to visit with her and grandma for one week at the end of October. I was able to observe my wife's efforts first hand. Her mother is extremely uncomfortable as she grows steadily weaker. She often wakes disoriented and confused. My wife would get up with her mother, assist her to get to the bathroom, sit with her and comfort her fears, pointing her always to her faith in Christ. On many occasions my wife would be up repeatedly through the night as her mom's discomfort would not allow her to get long or restful sleep.

Some days are better than other days in situations like this. Dying seems to come on in waves. Some days those waves are an ebb tide, and the 'old mom' emerges. But, alas, her strength is diminished and those episodes shorten as time goes on.

Caring for the dying exacts a toll on any family. It is the bone-weariness produced by the needs of an increasingly helpless loved one. It is the wearing emotional distress of loss as one sees the life ebbing away. It is the inevitable tension between self and one's own needs (needs?) and the needs of another, one who cannot any longer fully function as they once did.

For now, others in the family are shouldering the responsibility of care. The bone-weariness rests now almost completely on them. Our hearts and minds are still occupied with mom, preoccupied with concern for her comfort and care, but we are many miles away and must commit her to the Lord and the rest of the family for now.

We are not the only ones who have ever experienced this, of course. The loss of one much loved is the normal course of life. It befalls us all. I hope that our experience makes us more like Christ, who is all compassion. I hope that these days increase the 'pure religion quotient' in our lives. May God grant grace to our mom, and may God make us more like His Son.

James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

on CT and divorce etc

Christianity Today publishes a page with links to a number of its articles on the subject of divorce and remarriage, including a link to its most recent and somewhat controversial offering, What God has Joined, by David Instone-Brewer.

These articles may be unsatisfactory for many, but at least it gives a look at how a number of evangelicals view the subject.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

on a cool blog editing tool

I wrote the most recent post in a new blog editing tool I discovered, Windows Live Writer from Microsoft. The tool is free (but in beta) and allows you to edit your posts in a WYSIWIG window, but adds many tools and features not available in Blogger's editing window. For example, I can insert tables like this:

Label	Label
Point One	Point One A
Point Two	Point Two A

I can insert a map. Here is a map of our church's location:

We are at the corner of Brock and Matson above. The map comes as a road map, or in aerial view as below.

In the aerial view, our church building is the black-roofed building just above the green playing fields, with a few gary oaks behind. The oaks are mostly gone now, we have 14 townhouses as our 'back-door' neighbours now.

I can also easily insert pictures, hyperlinks, and videos, all without leaving a fairly intelligent WYSIWIG editor. There is an option to insert tags, one which I don't understand. The tags are somehow related to Technorati, or Flickr, or deli.icio.us and others. These are things I have vaguely heard of but I don't really know what they mean.

I can format text in quite a few different ways, like this:

Heading One

or

Heading Two

or

Heading Three

or

Heading Four

or

Heading Five

or

Heading Six

I can add colour to text, strikethrough, and other formatting settings.

So far I am quite pleased with this editor. It makes posting so much easier.

I can save these posts as drafts, to work on later, or I can publish directly from this editor to my blog without entering its editing features.

Try it, you might like it...

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

on Sunday 11.4.07

Morning Service

The messages I heard in Greenville last Sunday motivated the theme for our first service today. In our study of Romans, we had come to "concerning his Son ... Jesus Christ our Lord." The services last Sunday struck me with a particular thought about the Son, so I decided to pause where we were and dwell on the subject a bit more.

In Overwhelmed by the Son I was emphasizing this idea:

There is a real person who is Jesus and who is God and who is NOW, THIS MOMENT , living in heaven, ministering before God for his saints and who is worthy of all your attention and worship.

Often in our worship services, I find myself concentrating on conducting the service, less on contemplating on the subject of the service, which is the worship of the Son. Last week I was able to sit and absorb the messages from the music and the preaching strictly as a worshipper. I suppose this contributed to the difference for me.

Many people seem to go through the motions in their worship, barely aware of the center, the focal point of our Christianity. They act as if they believe Jesus is far away, someone from 2000 years ago who we follow as a matter of course -- they seem to miss a sense of the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ, living, interceding, ministering for us NOW. If we could capture a sense of the reality of the living person of our Lord, our worship, not to mention our lives, might be totally different.

Afternoon Service

In the afternoon, we looked at Leviticus 2 in Remember Your Lord. Lev 2 has to do with the grain offering in its various forms. It is a 'memorial' offering in that only a portion of the offering is burned as a 'memorial', reminding the worshipper that the offering is but a token of our 'whole life obligation' to God. We give tithes and offerings, but all our possessions belong to him. We give our time in worship each week, but all our time belongs to him.

The type of offering portrayed by the grain offering is a tribute - a gift of an inferior to a superior, often with a sense of fear. The offering acknowledges the indebtedness of the inferior to the superior, a picture of our whole life obligation to God.

Some things are excluded (yeast and honey) as unacceptable to God in this offering - these excluded items are likely excluded on the grounds of corruption they represent as agents of fermentation. The life presented to God is not acceptable with the presence of corruption. Salt is always included, a sign of an eternal covenant, an everlasting relationship between God and the believer.

This offering is a "therefore" offering. It always accompanies the burnt offering, which symbolizes our substitute fully and wholly bearing the wrath of God on our behalf. The 'therefore' aspect is captured by Rm 12.1-2, "I beseech you therefore..." The 'therefore' is the doctrine of salvation that precedes, so therefore present your bodies as a living grain offering, a living sacrifice... Heb 13.15-16 capture the same sense, "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice [grain offering] of praise to God continually".

The point of the grain offering? To call the worshipper to a 'whole life dedication' to God.

~~~

We had 42 in attendance today, including two ladies who were visiting. As they came in they seemed somewhat reluctant to give their names and they rushed out without speaking to anyone. Sometimes I wonder what is going through people's minds, but some are unwilling to reveal themselves. I don't get a sense that these two will be back, but you never know.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3