Surgeons have known for a long time about phantom pain. Phantom limb syndrome was first described in 1552 by French surgeon Ambroise Paré, who operated on wounded soldiers and wrote about patients who complained of pain in amputated limbs. Even that long ago, he thought, as doctors do today, that the pain originated in the brain, which is contrary to the popular misconception that phantom pain is in the sensory nerve endings.
Other kinds of trauma also may produce an aftereffect something like the pain that seems to come from the body part that isn't there. A very frightening experience such as living through a destructive earthquake or tornado may cause recurring fear; if a heavy truck makes the house shake as it rumbles by, the person has an instinctive response of panic. A survivor of a terrible accident may relive over and over again the awful moments when they were trapped inside their burning car. Even when she can clearly see that the event is not happening again, the impression on mind and body is as real as if it were.
Women who have suffered emotional devastation—rape, battering, emotional abuse, abandonment by the one they trusted, impoverishment—may feel recurrent pain even if their ordeal ends. Is that so strange? A thoughtless person might say of this lingering pain, "Well, it's just all in her head," and technically, that would be correct. This pain, too, emanates from the brain, but it is as real as that which seems to come from a limb that is no longer attached to the body. She may, for a very long time, think of the one who so deeply hurt her as if he's only in the next room. The pain and uncertainty and fear are as real as they ever were.
Researchers are working on treatment for pain from phantom limbs. There is help for persons suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (the suffering after shattering events). And release can eventually come after the pain of emotional trauma too, from a number of sources. A woman can speak to herself, "It's over. I am safe now." Loving friends can reassure her. Mental health professionals know how to help. With all of these, we still acknowledge that God is the ultimate Healer. Even Paré himself said, "I dressed his wound, God healed him."
Jesus declared, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:17-19)
Marjorie
You may also like "Getting Over It" here.
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Info about phantom pain and treatment from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070118-phantom-limb.html
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Pleasing Everybody
You just can't please everybody. We quote Abraham Lincoln as saying, "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can not fool all the people all of the time." (Or that may have been Phineas Barnum of circus fame, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.) It would be equally true had Lincoln or Barnum said, "You can not please all the people all of the time."
I began as a child with the serious business of gaining approval. I tried very hard to please my parents, my teachers, my classmates, my church friends, my brothers although not so much—and God. For many years, I made huge efforts to please everybody or at least not displease them—and especially God.
I outgrew some of my need to please absolutely everyone after I discovered that it was simply impossible to do. But unfortunately, I continued a lot of my effort to please God and not displease Him. I was a Christian a long time before I began to understand that God's love is not earned by even my best personal behavior. Our relationship does not depend on how I feel, and His acceptance of me does not fluctuate according to what kind of day I've experienced. Because "pleasing" has always carried such burden with it, it is helpful for me now to think instead in terms of honoring God and His family. This has helped me change the emphasis from endless worry about doing the right thing to being the person He enjoys being around!
I love the paraphrase of the old "Living Bible," the version which preceded the New Living Translation. David sang in the Shepherd Psalm, "He helps me do what honors Him the most." (Psalm 23:3) God is not off somewhere, making black marks in His book whenever I fall short of my self-ideal of perfection. He is leading me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake, not mine. And He is right here, helping me do what honors Him the most.
Marjorie
I began as a child with the serious business of gaining approval. I tried very hard to please my parents, my teachers, my classmates, my church friends, my brothers although not so much—and God. For many years, I made huge efforts to please everybody or at least not displease them—and especially God.
I outgrew some of my need to please absolutely everyone after I discovered that it was simply impossible to do. But unfortunately, I continued a lot of my effort to please God and not displease Him. I was a Christian a long time before I began to understand that God's love is not earned by even my best personal behavior. Our relationship does not depend on how I feel, and His acceptance of me does not fluctuate according to what kind of day I've experienced. Because "pleasing" has always carried such burden with it, it is helpful for me now to think instead in terms of honoring God and His family. This has helped me change the emphasis from endless worry about doing the right thing to being the person He enjoys being around!
I love the paraphrase of the old "Living Bible," the version which preceded the New Living Translation. David sang in the Shepherd Psalm, "He helps me do what honors Him the most." (Psalm 23:3) God is not off somewhere, making black marks in His book whenever I fall short of my self-ideal of perfection. He is leading me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake, not mine. And He is right here, helping me do what honors Him the most.
Marjorie
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
You Can Have My Mirror
The children of Israel were not your usual refugees. They were not poor by any means. They actually had quite a lot of wealth, including what they had "borrowed" from their Egyptian neighbors when they left the country. "And I [God] will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians." (Exodus 3:21-22 NIV) The problem in the wilderness was, of course, that you cannot eat gold and silver and fine clothing nor was there any place to buy it. Although they were rich by some measure, they would have perished had not God miraculously provided for them.
We sometimes envision that this huge throng was constantly trekking through desert, but this was not the case. They traveled when the cloud of God's presence moved, day or night, and they stopped when the cloud held steady. We don't know much about this wilderness life of theirs, but apparently while they camped, life took on some of its normal routine. Specifically, we know that they cooked and ate and did the laundry, engaged in battle against enemies and had disputes among themselves. (Exodus 16-18) All the while they held onto their valuables—with the notable exception of giving Aaron their gold earrings to make a gold calf-god to worship. Even at that, when the call went out for them to bring offerings for the construction of the tabernacle and all its accompaniments, they came, both men and women, bringing all that was needed. Earrings, nose rings, rings and necklaces, fine linen and colored threads, goats' hair, sheep skins and badger hides, precious stones, spices and oil. Not your usual refugees.
I am especially taken with the gifts bought by one group of women. The workers, with Bezalel in charge, made the bronze washbasin and its bronze stand from the bronze mirrors donated by the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. (This is where Moses went to speak with God.) Can you imagine what it would be like to give up your mirrors?
"Do I look all right?" a woman questions anxiously. Oh, sure, sure, the husband says. She is not convinced, but she has no mirror.
"Do I look all right?" she wonders as she meets other women. "Or are they looking at me strangely?" She should have checked in the mirror—but she doesn't have one.
"Do I look all right? I'm not trying to be anything extraordinary, just okay." But she can't tell for sure. If there were just a tiny mirror . . .
Certainly, gold and silver and precious stones and fine textiles are wonderful to bring as offerings. But I have special admiration for those women who brought their precious piece of polished bronze and said, "Here, you can have my mirror." Each of them gave, in a special, unique way the costly gift of part of her self.
Marjorie
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
We sometimes envision that this huge throng was constantly trekking through desert, but this was not the case. They traveled when the cloud of God's presence moved, day or night, and they stopped when the cloud held steady. We don't know much about this wilderness life of theirs, but apparently while they camped, life took on some of its normal routine. Specifically, we know that they cooked and ate and did the laundry, engaged in battle against enemies and had disputes among themselves. (Exodus 16-18) All the while they held onto their valuables—with the notable exception of giving Aaron their gold earrings to make a gold calf-god to worship. Even at that, when the call went out for them to bring offerings for the construction of the tabernacle and all its accompaniments, they came, both men and women, bringing all that was needed. Earrings, nose rings, rings and necklaces, fine linen and colored threads, goats' hair, sheep skins and badger hides, precious stones, spices and oil. Not your usual refugees.
I am especially taken with the gifts bought by one group of women. The workers, with Bezalel in charge, made the bronze washbasin and its bronze stand from the bronze mirrors donated by the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. (This is where Moses went to speak with God.) Can you imagine what it would be like to give up your mirrors?
"Do I look all right?" a woman questions anxiously. Oh, sure, sure, the husband says. She is not convinced, but she has no mirror.
"Do I look all right?" she wonders as she meets other women. "Or are they looking at me strangely?" She should have checked in the mirror—but she doesn't have one.
"Do I look all right? I'm not trying to be anything extraordinary, just okay." But she can't tell for sure. If there were just a tiny mirror . . .
Certainly, gold and silver and precious stones and fine textiles are wonderful to bring as offerings. But I have special admiration for those women who brought their precious piece of polished bronze and said, "Here, you can have my mirror." Each of them gave, in a special, unique way the costly gift of part of her self.
Marjorie
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Serving or Subservience
Sometimes we hear Christian jargon batted about so much that we lose our grasp of what is meant by the terms. Because words like servant and servanthood have been used so much, I've chosen to use different ones.
If one has a spirit of helpfulness, it is easy to slip from freedom in serving into the bondage of subservience. Right away we can get a clue from the sub- prefix. It means "under," "beneath," "lower," "further down" or "less important." That meaning is useful, of course, when we talk about a subway or submarine, subzero temperatures, a subbasement, or a subhead. But sub- connected to service means, not retained and remunerated fairly for aid one has given, but service that is required because the server is under the other. He/she is beneath the one being served, lower and less important.
My purpose in pointing out this difference is that Christians sometimes confuse the two. (As I have done myself.) Too frequently, it can be seen in churches where officials use their position to assume a superior stance over others. They "deserve" their privileges and even if they do not require obeisance, they quite readily accept inappropriate deference. Sadly, it is found in home relationships too. The husband—backed by Scriptural teaching, he supposes, concerning the submission of his wife to his decisions and wishes—domineers or even abuses his family. The wife may not realize there is any other way to interpret those same Scriptures, and hates the position in which they have placed her. In these churches and homes, those who "under" are not able to give freely in serving, but are enmeshed in subservience. While risking oversimplification, I see the two sharply contrasted in these ways.
Serving allows one to understand and minister to others while retaining his/her own identity and objectivity.
Subservience requires one to give up autonomy, even one's own Spirit-led intentions.
Serving has genuineness about it; it is consistent with the rest of the giver's life.
Subservience means the giver may have to hide feelings of frustration and anger.
Serving is about honestly assessing need, not always yielding to what is wanted or demanded.
Subservience is allowing oneself to be manipulated by another, even when their agenda might not be particularly self-serving.
Serving means one chooses to be in a caring or giving situation.
Subservience requires one to co-operate or suffer negative consequences.
So what are people to do if they are caught in subservience rather than serving? Some situations can be altered so that the sub- part no longer exists to create an imbalance of power. That's why Jesus was so hard on the Pharisees. Some relationships have to enter a negotiation phase, where both giver and receiver act honestly and graciously. Remember Jesus washing Peter's feet? And some have to be ended. The Apostle Paul and Barnabas perhaps illustrate this when they went their separate ways, although thankfully, only temporarily. None of these are easy, especially if the inequality is firmly established. But serving is a Christian privilege, fully based on the Scripture; subservience is not.
Marjorie
If one has a spirit of helpfulness, it is easy to slip from freedom in serving into the bondage of subservience. Right away we can get a clue from the sub- prefix. It means "under," "beneath," "lower," "further down" or "less important." That meaning is useful, of course, when we talk about a subway or submarine, subzero temperatures, a subbasement, or a subhead. But sub- connected to service means, not retained and remunerated fairly for aid one has given, but service that is required because the server is under the other. He/she is beneath the one being served, lower and less important.
My purpose in pointing out this difference is that Christians sometimes confuse the two. (As I have done myself.) Too frequently, it can be seen in churches where officials use their position to assume a superior stance over others. They "deserve" their privileges and even if they do not require obeisance, they quite readily accept inappropriate deference. Sadly, it is found in home relationships too. The husband—backed by Scriptural teaching, he supposes, concerning the submission of his wife to his decisions and wishes—domineers or even abuses his family. The wife may not realize there is any other way to interpret those same Scriptures, and hates the position in which they have placed her. In these churches and homes, those who "under" are not able to give freely in serving, but are enmeshed in subservience. While risking oversimplification, I see the two sharply contrasted in these ways.
Serving allows one to understand and minister to others while retaining his/her own identity and objectivity.
Subservience requires one to give up autonomy, even one's own Spirit-led intentions.
Serving has genuineness about it; it is consistent with the rest of the giver's life.
Subservience means the giver may have to hide feelings of frustration and anger.
Serving is about honestly assessing need, not always yielding to what is wanted or demanded.
Subservience is allowing oneself to be manipulated by another, even when their agenda might not be particularly self-serving.
Serving means one chooses to be in a caring or giving situation.
Subservience requires one to co-operate or suffer negative consequences.
So what are people to do if they are caught in subservience rather than serving? Some situations can be altered so that the sub- part no longer exists to create an imbalance of power. That's why Jesus was so hard on the Pharisees. Some relationships have to enter a negotiation phase, where both giver and receiver act honestly and graciously. Remember Jesus washing Peter's feet? And some have to be ended. The Apostle Paul and Barnabas perhaps illustrate this when they went their separate ways, although thankfully, only temporarily. None of these are easy, especially if the inequality is firmly established. But serving is a Christian privilege, fully based on the Scripture; subservience is not.
Marjorie
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