Joy, Sorrow, Anticipation, Impatience, Confidence

When Chris's liver gets delivered,
Someone else will get de-liver-ed

This nonsense line kept rattling through my head this morning during my quiet time. I have a 28 year old nephew with Hepatitis (from a bad blood transfusion) who has been on a list for a liver transplant for several months now. Three times he has gone to the hospital because a donor liver came in, but after testing, it has turned out not to be a match for him. So, yesterday was the fourth time. All looked good, and the surgery was to be scheduled for 9:00 pm last night. And as I sent out e-mails and facebook updates to my friends to pray for Chris, several of my friends pointed out the mixture of sorrow and joy that comes with a story like this. For my nephew to get a chance for his life to be extended, someone else's life has been cut short. So I am learning to pray not just for my nephew, but also for the family of some son or father or brother who has died.

Anyway, I woke up this morning and checked my text messages for a word from my sister. Turns out that late last night the doctors determined that the liver was too big for Chris. So, for the fourth time, it's back to waiting.

Waiting is a discouraging thing. It is hard to pray faithfully for a blessing from God, only to see the answers seemingly going to someone else. But the more I think about it, the more I am reminded that the call to love my neighbor means I have to pray in equal measure for my nephew AND the family of the donor. And I also have to pray for the recipient of the liver that Chris didn't get. Because now, someone else is getting that second chance on life. Someone else's father, or brother, or son. And what if that person doesn't yet know Christ? This potentially gives him a chance to respond to the love of Christ someday in the future.

All that to say, my nonsense, "Dr.-Seuss-is-taking-over-my- blog" ditty has had another verse added to it. Indulge me:

When Chris's liver gets delivered,
Someone else will get de-liver-ed
But if the delivered liver isn't a fit for Chris
Someone else could get delivered.

Divided We Fail

This election season has lost me a friend. It started when I posed the question on my Facebook page, "Is it better to vote for the candidate you dislike the least, or not to vote at all?" This caused a very conservative friend from college to begin a conversation with me on Facebook that spiraled down into ever increasing levels of nastiness. And while he never "defriended" me on Facebook, he stopped returning messages, and the last one from him was just plain ugly.

What hurts the most is that this friend is a brother in Christ. We were both very involved in campus ministry when we were in college. We prayed together, led Bible studies together, went on more retreats and ministry opportunities than I can even remember. Things went south over a situation when we worked together several years ago, and we hadn't talked in a long time. Then, a bunch of us found each other on Facebook, exchanged pictures of our families, got caught up with each other, and started talking about reunions. Then came politics.

The odd thing is, about this same time I became friends with someone else that I hadn't seen since high school. As we went through the same routine of getting caught up with each other's lives, she let me know that she's been in a same-sex relationship for the past several years. I let her know that I was part of a conservative Christian denomination that considers that lifestyle as sinful. But we kept talking. We continue to have mutual respect for one another. I don't feel I've compromised my beliefs in order to continue conversation. I hope both of us would say we are learning from each other.

So what it comes down to is this. Two conservative Christians can't be friends because they disagree on politics, but a conservative Christian can be friends with a lesbian in spite of their disagreements on lifestyle. Does anyone else see something deeply wrong with this picture?

"If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship, as we walked with the throng at the house of God."

Psalm 55:12-14