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Dear Friends,
My message to you this month is one of gratitude for all your cards, notes, emails, calls, visits, offers of help, and prayers during my recent time away because of health issues. Your caring words of encouragement and love help in ways you may never know.
Many of you have asked about what happened. The short version is that for several months I had had some nagging chest symptoms that finally prompted investigation, including a treadmill nuclear stress test on January 9. Results of the tests led quickly to a heart catheterization and the insertion of a stent in one artery of the heart which was 80% blocked. The whole event was quite a surprise, as there was little reason to suspect a problem of this nature.
One interesting outcome of all this is the discovery of just how many of you have undergone similar repair work. I know, of course, over time, of the individuals I visit in the hospital or home who have caths and stents and other cardiac work done. Sue and I were taken aback, however, by the number of you who shared your particular stories all in the span of the last couple of weeks. We hadn’t thought, for example, of just how many stents lie hidden in the chests of our congregation on Sunday morning—these little mesh tubes working silently to prop open the pipes allowing our vital life-giving fluid to flow.
Medical science is a marvelous and miraculous thing!
Behind it all, however, is the hand of God. The writer of that beautiful creation story in Genesis 2 says:
… the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Scientists and surgeons do amazing things with the instruments at hand. But the Breath of Life belongs to God!
Some of you stent-bearers may have heard words like I heard — "We dodged a bullet this time!" I am certain that you, too, breathed a God-given breath of relief that you will continue to enjoy the gift of life for a time longer. I am sure you, too, breathed a God-given breath of gratitude that you will have a host of new opportunities … to share your love, to make your life a witness for Christ, to fight the good fight and help in the transformation of the world, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to comfort the sick, to release the captives, to bring peace from conflict, to love the rejected and marginalized.
While God gives us breath, stent-bearers and all the rest of us crippled souls can make a difference in our world. Carrying the little bits of stainless steel and transferred bypass hoses and replacement parts wherever they may be inside us, we still carry the mysterious, marvelous, miraculous Breath of Life that only God can give.
Breathe wisely, friends!
Breathe gratefully ... and be made whole!
Pastor Ron
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Howland United Methodist Church
730 Howland Wilson Rd NE
Warren, OH 44484
Phone: 330-856-3463
Fax: 330-856-7037
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