A Reminder of Mortality

As I sit at my computer it is a day less than a week since I had my gall bladder removed. Now, first, let me say that this is a relatively simple and straight-forward procedure. In fact, they were able to remove my laparoscopically, so I experienced minimal pain and am healing at a remarkable rate - even faster than the best case scenario as outlined by the doctors and medical documentation suggested. But all of that was in the future when I entered the surgical suite last Tuesday. I knew that I had been under a general anesthetic before and had tolerated it well, so there was little reason to expect anything untoward to happen. But it was a more immediate than normal reminder that we are not nearly so much in control of our own lives as we like to think. So, morbid as it might have seemed, I told my wife that I would not have traded anything for the more than 36 years we have had together, and that I wanted her to tell our kids, if anything should happen, that I loved each and everyone of them. I wanted her to tell them that I went into surgery fully confident that I was in God's hands and that, regardless of what happened, I knew that I was in not just good hands, but God's hands. That doesn't mean that I thought that the surgeon couldn't make a mistake, even one that could result in a premature entrance to God's presence, but that, regardless of what the surgeon did, I was certain of my eternal destination. And that is a good feeling!

Pastor Ken