Trust in the Lord

I read this today and wanted to share it:

Psalms 118:8 -- It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

I pray that I can trust in the Lord more, and less on the arm of flesh.

I must confess that ever since Caleb died, I have a very easy time of not trusting in the arm of flesh. The doctors were assuring us in no uncertain terms, even up to five hours before Caleb died that, "we can fix this".

Perhaps my ease of not trusting in the arm of flesh is too easy now -- I have very little confidence in man at all. Perhaps I'm 'gun-shy' about placing my confidence in man. Perhaps I'm too untrusting.

I know that God has given man great medical knowledge for the improvement of our lives. Many of us have benefited from this knowledge. I have 10 full fingers, whereas I had uncles and grandpas with missing fingers. My Mom is alive thanks to medical knowledge. Perhaps dad too, thanks to proper medicines. But on Nov. 8, 2004, I came face to face with the undeniable reality that doctors are not God. (This may run contrary to some of their opinions of themselves.)

Like every tool, the knowledge of medicine can be used for good or evil -- to be an instrument in God's hands, or to be a 'usurper' and excercise unrighteous dominion and to get gain.

I'm not saying the doctors that attended to Caleb are necessarily evil and just out to get gain. But, they certainly did have give the impression that they held the opinion of "we can fix everything". Until they couldn't.

I also watched as Rebecca McKinnes, Lucia's midwife, helped her have a natural birth with our Becky, and was so grateful for the way she (the midwife) blesses lives with the knowledge God provides. After all the children, I have seen a huge contrast between doctors who show up the last 1 minute to catch the baby and get all the credit, to doctors who even though the nurses delivered the baby show up and get all the payment unjustly, to Becky McKinnes who walked Lucia through a birth experience that had her smiling with true Joy during birth rather than being fearful and hating every second and just wishing it was over.

So, I've seen both sides of the coin -- man (er, woman :) blessing others by being an instrument in God's hands, and man having unjustified confidence in the arm of flesh.

Anyway, I came across this scripture today and wanted to share some of my random thoughts it prompted.

-Joe