Reflections on love

For many, love is just a word,

A passing phase, a brief emotion;

But love that honors Christ our Lord

Responds to Him with deep devotion. 

—Hess

Love is a choice and it represents a commitment.

There's no doubt about it, attraction is uncontrollable and arousal is uncontrollable.

But attraction and arousal are not love.

They can lead to love, but they are not love.

Love is a choice.

-- Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life Devotional

When Jesus was asked to name the greatest command in the Law, He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matt. 22:37-38). The questioner wanted to test Jesus, but the Lord answered him with the key element in pleasing God. First and foremost, our relationship with Him is a matter of the heart.

--David C. McCasland

When you're truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You'll drive for hours to be together, even if it's only for a short while. You don't mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You'll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you're crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it's painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.

--Francis Chan, Crazy Love

Love is not a place

To come and go as we please 

It's a house we enter in Then commit to never leave

--Warren Barfield

Mass and nodules

My first consult today was with a 73 year old previously healthy man. The last time he was sick was 4 years ago when he had stomach pain from an ulcer. It happened on Christmas day. It was so bad he had to go see a doctor. Then for 4 years, nothing. Until this Christmas when after eating a wonderful meal with family and friends, the pain came back. It got so bad that he couldn't sleep and by 4am this morning he decided to come in and see the doctor.

We took some blood and ran some tests. It turns out that he not only has an enlarged thyroid that has moved his wind pipe over to one side of his chest, he also has enlarged lymphs nodes in his chest, and abdomen, almost down to his pelvis. And then his liver is acting up and so his liver enzymes are high. He used to be a heavy drinker over 30 years ago. He also has a mass in his lungs.

What struck me was he was so grateful the pain was gone and he could now sleep. He has no idea that he probably just ate the last meal he will enjoy for a long long time. And he probably just slept the last few hours of worry free sleep.

The next consult I just kind of helped with. The woman is 52 years old. She has had swelling and pain in her right breast for 3 months. She has also had over 20 lb weight loss in that same time and has had chills off and on. The pain got bad enough that she came into the clinic to see the doctor. We saw and examined her and reported back to the senior resident. He looked over all her labs, her history and then her imaging studies.  Then he went into the room to speak with and examine her as well. While he examined her he found big lymph nodes in her right axilla. That was enough to give the most likely diagnosis. He sat down looked her straight in the eye and then said to her "you probably have cancer." Her response? "I know something was wrong but I've been praying for 3 months that Jesus would take it away. What am I supposed to do now?" His voice cracked as he went on to explain what the next steps would be. She was already in another world...

Mass and nodules, two terrible words that can change the course of one's life forever. What are we supposed to do now?