What are we willing to risk?
Since Anita has started work over in 1 day surgery at Baptist Montclair, she's come home everyday with some great stories. Yesterday's was quite interesting!
A 50's something woman was in for some minor surgery. She was clearly much concerned about her appearance - hair was bleached, obvious breast augmentation (that's the accepted term these days), and very well-groomed. As anyone who's ever been around surgery knows, one of the standard questions asked prior to surgery is, "do you have any dentures, partials, or any other dental appliances in your mouth?" (This is for the safety of the patient because of the risk of them coming loose and choking the person.) Anita was one of two nurses who directly asked this lady and her answer both times was emphatically "NO." Anita and the other nurse never knew until the operating room staff sent the lady back because she had a full set of upper and lower dentures. She flat out lied and was willing to ignore the risk of death to protect her image!
So they took out her dentures and sent her back to surgery - leaving the dentures in a cup in the room to which she was to return. As they got word she was finished in surgery and would be back in a few minutes they went into her room and the dentures were gone! L.G. (the other nurse) asked her children and other family in the room if they'd seen the dentures, and their response quickly indicated they had no idea about mom's true dental situation. "I know she's had some veneer work done on her front teeth," said one child. L.G. quickly and tactfully diffused the situation and apologized for coming to wrong room! Come to find out the lady sent someone from the O.R. to fetch her dentures before she would return to her room and face her family. This is a story of someone enslaved to their self-image.
It's also a story about me and you - we all find things to attach ourselves to, becoming slaves to something other than Christ, something that we think will give us satisfaction and meaning in life. We all risk important things every day for the sake of "looking good" in the eyes of others.
As crazy is this lady in the story is, I'm right there with her - and so are you. Let's spend some time taking out our dentures and admitting to others that we're not as perfect as we'd like for them to think we are. Only the Gospel frees us to do this! All of us long for perfection - and though we won't attain it by ourselves, we have it in Christ!
setting my dentures in a cup,
Burt
A 50's something woman was in for some minor surgery. She was clearly much concerned about her appearance - hair was bleached, obvious breast augmentation (that's the accepted term these days), and very well-groomed. As anyone who's ever been around surgery knows, one of the standard questions asked prior to surgery is, "do you have any dentures, partials, or any other dental appliances in your mouth?" (This is for the safety of the patient because of the risk of them coming loose and choking the person.) Anita was one of two nurses who directly asked this lady and her answer both times was emphatically "NO." Anita and the other nurse never knew until the operating room staff sent the lady back because she had a full set of upper and lower dentures. She flat out lied and was willing to ignore the risk of death to protect her image!
So they took out her dentures and sent her back to surgery - leaving the dentures in a cup in the room to which she was to return. As they got word she was finished in surgery and would be back in a few minutes they went into her room and the dentures were gone! L.G. (the other nurse) asked her children and other family in the room if they'd seen the dentures, and their response quickly indicated they had no idea about mom's true dental situation. "I know she's had some veneer work done on her front teeth," said one child. L.G. quickly and tactfully diffused the situation and apologized for coming to wrong room! Come to find out the lady sent someone from the O.R. to fetch her dentures before she would return to her room and face her family. This is a story of someone enslaved to their self-image.
It's also a story about me and you - we all find things to attach ourselves to, becoming slaves to something other than Christ, something that we think will give us satisfaction and meaning in life. We all risk important things every day for the sake of "looking good" in the eyes of others.
As crazy is this lady in the story is, I'm right there with her - and so are you. Let's spend some time taking out our dentures and admitting to others that we're not as perfect as we'd like for them to think we are. Only the Gospel frees us to do this! All of us long for perfection - and though we won't attain it by ourselves, we have it in Christ!
setting my dentures in a cup,
Burt
posted by Yates Boykin at 6:15 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home