Rock!

October 5th, 2013| Topic: RaMbLeS | 10

A few weeks ago, I had a most unfortunate episode.

A stone. In the kidney. Well, in the ureter actually, the pipe connecting kidney to bladder.

Any pain, you ask?

Let’s just put it this way: It was B.R.U.T.A.L.

I’ll spare you all the gory (yup, G.O.R.Y.) details of the workings (or the non-workings) of my innards.

I’ll just quote a medical textbook:

Acute renal colic is probably the most excruciatingly painful event a person can endure. Striking without warning, the pain is often described as being worse than childbirth, broken bones, gunshot wounds, burns, or surgery.”

(But, no, I’m not at all ashamed to display my “KUB”—X’ray of the Kidney–Urinary Bladder. After all, folks at many airports in this country and numerous ones abroad have seen me thus quite often.)

In any case, I had a stone. Too small to be shocked with ultrasound. Too big to be left alone to pass.

The long and short of it is that it had to be “roto-rootered” out under general anesthesia. Oh, the indignities of life!

(BTW, if you thought life held any dignity for you, you thought wrong. It doesn’t. Dignity is a figment of your imagination!)

And my urologist left a stent in there somewhere. Which he removed a week later.

Actually, “removed” is not the right word for it. He literally yanked it out. All 26 centimeters of it. Yup, T.W.E.N.T.Y.-S.I.X. Almost a foot. I almost freaked out when I saw it!

What in the world did you put in me?”

Woe is me!

It’s a good thing I am on sabbatical from Dallas Seminary this fall semester; I didn’t miss any classes.

And, I am proud to say, two days after my procedure, I saw patients in my derm clinic. By the grace of God and the mercies of hydrocodone.

I tell you, the things we have to go through in life.

It gives new meaning to “rock”:

There is no one holy like the LORD,
Indeed, there is no one besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.
1 Samuel 2:2

Nope, no rock like our God. No stone, no gravel, no boulder is like our God.

For who is God, besides the LORD?
And who is a rock, besides our God?
2 Samuel 22:32

No cliff, no crag, no schist, no granite. Nope, no rock like our God.

The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and upright is He.
Deuteronomy 32:4

The only refuge in the trials, turmoils, and turbulences of life.

My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
My shield and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold and my refuge;
My savior ….
2 Samuel 22:3

In the ancient Jewish Talmud, there is an appropriate prayer:

When one comes out of a bathroom he should say: ‘Blessed is He who has formed man in wisdom and created in him many orifices and many cavities. It is obvious and known before Your throne of glory that if one of them were to be ruptured or one of them blocked, it would be impossible for a man to survive and stand before You. Blessed are You that heals all flesh and does wonders.’”

Amen! The Talmud recommends that you recite this every time you come out of the bathroom. I do it going in and coming out of the bathroom!

The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock;
And exalted be the God of my salvation!
Psalm 18:46

The only Rock!