Something I Learned from a Bee Sting

Tuesday morning - Poor girl

Rachel has had a bit of an adventure this week. On Monday on the playground at school, a bee stung her on the side of the face near her eye. They took care of her at school, of course, and gave her a cold pack to put on the site of the sting. It didn't look too bad when she went to bed, although she did complain of her face feeling strange.

Something happened overnight, though. When she woke up, her right eye was swollen completely shut. I gave her a cool compress to put on her eye. I was so thankful that my parents are nearby. Mom took care of her while I went to work, and took her to the doctor. Benadryl and ice was the prescription.

Wednesday night - looking better.

At home later that night, I got online and read up on what could have been done for a bee sting. I learned a few things, both from the research and from the doctor.

1. Her eye became so swollen because in that location, there is not much flesh to absorb the venom. A sting on the leg would not swell nearly as much.
2. It is important to remove the stinger as quickly as possible, The longer the stinger remains in the victim's body, the more venom is released.
3. Early treatment with antihistamines and ice can help prevent some of the swelling.

If you've read my blog very much, you know that I often look for parallels between everyday life and spiritual truth. I see a few parallels here between bee stings and attacks of the enemy..

1. 

   This photo, although taken some time ago,
    is more what her eye looks like now.
   I forgot to get a photo tonight.

   
   

   
   

   Satan will always attack us at our most vulnerable point. If he were to attack at a point of strength, the effect would be minimal. But an attack at a point of vulnerability can have a much more severe result. This is why beekeepers wear protective clothing. This is why we need our spiritual armor to protect our vulnerable spots.
2. When we are "stung" by Satan and give in to temptation, it is important to quickly remove the "stinger". This is confession. When we quickly confess our wrong, the "stinger" of sin is removed. If we refuse to confess the wrong, the "stinger" remains, allowing the poison to spread and cause greater damage.
3. Once the "stinger" is removed, we need to take active steps to right the wrong that was done. Restoration, restitution, refocusing. All these things and more act as spiritual "antihistamines". They may come into play to reduce the damage and return us to health.

I am happy to say that Rachel's eye is pretty much back to normal now. I am also thankful for the little lesson I learned from a bee sting.

Praise in the Midst of Problems

I was just browsing through some of my old newsletters from my years in Indonesia. I was actually looking for one where I described the theft of my laptop...along with many other items...when Rachel and I visited Surabaya to get her first tourist visa. I haven't found that story yet, but I did run across this one.

As I read it, it made me think about how much practice we can get learning to praise God even in the midst of the problems and trials of life. Even when those trials keep pouring in one after the other, seemingly without end. In this true-life account, God taught me a few lessons about praise in the midst of problems. What did He use to tech the lesson? He used a couple temperamental cars.. Here is the story as it was told in May 2007.

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Have you ever had one of those days?  Well, I have.  It would more accurate to say that I have had one of those weeks…nearly two to be precise.  There is nothing overtly spiritual about things I want to share with you, but God has been using the mundane, frustrating events surrounding the problems of an old car to teach me a thing or two about praising Him in the midst of problems.  I hope you will indulge me as I share the story.

For starters, two weekends ago, my car would not start when I tried to leave for church both Sunday morning and evening (problem).  Kind neighbors push-started it (praise).  The same thing happened three times on Monday, the final time happening as I was on my way to take the car in for repairs (problem).  The service station sent someone out to help me on the side of the road and got the car running enough to make it to the station (praise).  Rachel, at age 19 months, was with me through all this, and she handled a couple hours of waiting with great patience and humor (PRAISE!!!) 

On Wednesday morning, I still had problems with the electrical system (problem). I took it in to a local service station.  They fixed the immediate problem and even dropped my car off at my house for me (praise).  It became obvious Thursday morning that something else was wrong, this time not with the electrical system (problem).  The service station went to work again and replaced a worn-out oil pump (praise). 

Sunday morning, the car started beautifully.  I headed into the city for church.  A police officer held up traffic on a main road to let me enter from a side road.  Unfortunately, a young man on a motorbike didn’t see the officer’s signal to stop.  He ran into my front bumper (Problem). Thankfully, neither my car nor his bike were damaged and no one was injured (Praise!)  Before church, I stopped at an ATM machine.  When I turned the key, the car wouldn’t start…again (Problem).  Thankfully, it was only a short distance to church, and taxis were plentiful (Praise). 

After the service, Rachel and I ate some lunch, and I got some help to try and push-start the car.  It was no use.  The car simply wouldn’t start (Problem).  One man called a company that provides emergency roadside assistance (Praise). Help came and the mechanic got the car going again (Praise).  I decided I ought to take the car to a service station yet again that specialized in my model of car.  Unfortunately, that place was all the way across town and I was running very low on gas (Problem).  I didn’t have the nerve to risk shutting off the engine to fill up the tank, so I just headed straight to the service station to drop off the car.  We made it without running out of gas (Praise)! We took a taxi back to where we were spending the night.  We were halfway there when I realized that the key for the house was still on the key ring I left with the car (Problem).  Thankfully, we were only halfway to the house instead of right at the gate (Praise). 

Monday afternoon, I was told that the needed repairs would take a few days.  I rented a car on Tuesday.  On Thursday, I ran some errands in the rental car and had already made a couple stops.  When I turned the key for what was supposed to be the final time that day…you guessed it…the rental car wouldn’t start.  Dead battery, of course…what else would it be? (PROBLEM).  I called the rental company, and they agreed to send someone out to help me (Praise).  I told them I would try to get the

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car push-started so I could at least get it home and wait there.  Thankfully, this all happened near the children’s home. Several of the older boys and a man on staff push-started the car (Praise).  It ran just until the end of the street when it died again (Problem).  Several men I didn’t even know pushed it around the corner and I parked at the side of the road.  One young man saw me walking tiredly back toward the children’s home…a long uphill walk.  He offered to give me a ride home on his motorbike (Praise). 

Finally, about noon on Friday, the mechanic from the city drove my newly repaired car to my town, got the rental running, and took it back to the city.  He even went to bat for me with the rental company and insisted that I only be charged for two days rental of the car, not three (PRAISE!).   

All-in-all, it has been an “educational” couple weeks…not so much in terms of “kingdom work”, but in terms of seeing God’s hand at work and learning to praise Him when the natural tendency would be to grumble and complain. Hmmmmm. You know, I guess that actually IS a part of kingdom work, after all.

In everything give thanks…  1 Thessalonians 5:18

The Urgent vs. the Important

One of the things I have found most challenging about my new job as a high school secretary is the sheer busy-ness of the job. I admit that it is more challenging right now at the beginning of the year when I am new and several hundred students are purchasing parking passes so they can park on campus. This particular season will pass, only to be followed by other major projects, but the parking pass procession is particularly difficult.

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You see, at various times of the day, I will have a couple dozen students lined up in front of my desk, all wanting to get their parking pass before security starts issuing parking fines. Plenty of urgent business.

Yet at the same time, I need to keep up with the more weighty issues of student discipline that the assistant principal for whom I work needs to deal with. She sends me emails to let me know what tasks I need to do next. Today, I missed noticing several of these important emails until too late. It is so easy to get focused on the urgent, and miss the important.

This focus on the urgent - the tyranny of the urgent as Charles E. Hummel puts it - tends to plague the best of us. We allow the things that are right in front of us to take our full attention. In the meantime, we allow more important things to slip past our attention simply because they don't clamor as loudly for our attention.

I can take steps to fix the problem of not seeing my boss's important emails until much later by setting an alert whenever a message from her comes into my mailbox. It is much more difficult to ensure that the "tyranny of the urgent" does not crowd out the truly important things in our lives.

What will I do to make sure THAT doesn't happen? What about you?