Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death.
I have a friend who has had a very hard two weeks. He was misdiagnosed with a brain tumor. By the end of the first week, neurology discovered it had been a stroke TIA and not a brain tumor after all. As strange as it sounds, there was joy in the family that it had only been a stroke. I thought: “Well, brain tumor in one hand, and stroke in the other. One of those, choose the best of two evil things.” Now the family doesn’t know what to believe. Every suggestion for prescriptions and recovery that comes out of the doctor’s mouths is suspect.
I know the doctors are only human and work within a system that is hectic, over-analyzed, bureaucratically driven and lots of room for human error. The statistics for death caused by misdiagnoses and wrongly prescribed prescriptions are on the rise and becoming frequent. I am not sure what the statistics in Canada are, but the effects of this trend can be overwhelming and concerning to the families it is happening to. As I have stated in the past, I have come to call our medical system “The health-scare system.” Perhaps signs of the future. Luke 21:26a Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.
Since this type of misdiagnoses is happening in the natural, how many people have misdiagnosed their need for a healthy spiritual life? They come up with overused excuses for not getting involved with God or acknowledging the state of their eternal health. They use the same old lame excuses: the church did me wrong; my family was fanatical and made me go to Sunday-school; our pastor ran off with a member in the church, leaving his family destitute and so on and so on. These excuses come off the tongue like poorly rehearsed lines from a B-movie. Don’t get me wrong. There are people who have been severely affected in life with incredible evil atrocities done to them in the name of God, but most often these are not the people in our communities and families spouting-off the usual nonsense about those people down at the church. These acquaintances and family members claim to know all that is knowable about everything Godly. Rom. 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. At the end of the day, they misdiagnose their desperate need to be delivered and saved from their sins. God has a word for those who take Him lightly. Rev. 3:17 Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
A misdiagnosis from the health system may be found out in time; therefore, it may hopefully be rectified by getting on a healing path to recovery. A misdiagnosis of our personal eternal soul can leave us eternally wanting. It will take some humility on our behalf to admit the need for a personal savior. As the Archbishop of Canterbury says, ” Humility is the soil in which pride has difficulty to grow.” Don’t misdiagnose meek as weak, pride for courage, or vulnerability as gullibility. This type of misdiagnosing has kept people out of the kingdom of God because they thought they knew better than God. Prov. 16:25 There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death.
It takes the courage of character to admit the need for help on an eternal scale. It takes an eternal loving God to get us to and through the salvation plan God has for us. Don’t let your misdiagnoses or shallow judgment of an infinite God’s idea of salvation for your life be guffawed away like some small joke. Our attitude should be from a position of humility and gratefulness when we come to God the Father.
God has given us His grace through Jesus Christ to diagnose our personal need for His salvation plan. Let us humble ourselves unto God and receive His gift with real love and thanksgiving. 1 Pet. 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. I leave you with these words from the book The Road to Character by David Brooks. “We sometimes have to crawl into the valley of humility in order to climb the heights of character.” God bless you and good spiritual health to us all.
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Such a good word Norm…thanks..blessings.
Good word, Sir Norm. Full of truth.