Violin!

March 14th, 2020| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

The other day a strange thing was heard inside the surgical operating room of King’s College Hospital, in London. The strains of Mahler and Gershwin.

On a violin! Played by a patient! While undergoing surgery! For a brain tumor!

Dagmar Turner, 53, a former management consultant from the Isle of Wight developed a malignancy on her brain’s right frontal lobe, close the area controlling the fine movement of her left hand.

The good lady, Ms. Turner, and her surgeons wanted to preserve her ability to play music and her 40-year passion for the instrument.

So Prof. Keyoumars Ashkan, the consultant neurosurgeon at King’s (himself a musician), came up with a plan: they were going to map her brain to identify areas that were active when she played the violin, open up the skull, and get their patient to play the violin as they removed the tumor.

And so … Mahler and Gershwin in the OR!

Reported Prof. Ashkan:

We managed to remove over 90 percent of the tumor, including all the areas suspicious of aggressive activity, while retaining full function in her left hand.”

Ms. Turner thanked the surgeons.

We would too, and we should, because for a child of God, a believer in Jesus Christ, a divine surgical operation is already ongoing. You see, we too, have a deadly “tumor” within us.

It’s called the “flesh,” and it’s sinful. That “flesh” was with us as unbelievers, and that “flesh” is still with us now as believers.

“Flesh” is, of course, not our “flesh and blood,” as in bones and brains, noses and nails. Not that kind of flesh. Rather the flesh is that part of us that is permanently sinful, permanently evil, producing only sin.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions,
factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing ….
Galatians 5:19–21

Because of the flesh, we sin. While believers in Christ have died to sin as a power, we have a “tumor” within ourselves—the flesh—that causes trouble.

For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God;
for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, …
Romans 8:5–8

But for believers, there is hope: a surgery has begun. When we placed our trust in Jesus Christ as our only God and Savior, we received the Holy Spirit.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. …
Romans 8:9

So, believers, now under the control of the Holy Spirit, are able to rebuff the advances of sin through the flesh, and, instead, we respond to God to produce righteous deeds.

So then, fellow believers, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh ….
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
Romans 8:12–14

No, the surgery is not over. The “tumor” will be fully and finally removed only when we see Jesus Christ face to face.

We know that when He appears, we will be like Him.
1 John 3:2

Until then, we play that violin, producing deeds of righteousness under the control of the Holy Spirit, eschewing deeds of sin under the control of the cancerous “flesh.”

SOURCES:
Reuters; NPR