Confidence Is Fragile And Can Evaporate Easily

It is sometimes the little things that give you confidence in someone … or not. 

confidence is fragile and can evaporate easily

In my last post I wrote about my experience of going to the urgent care unit at the hospital (read about that here).  

I got hit while playing hockey and later that day saw some flashing lights in my peripheral vision. The urgent care unit couldn’t help me. So first they made an appointment for me with the eye clinic and second, I guess it wasn’t that urgent. 

The next day I arrived at the eye clinic for my follow-up. I was really hoping that someone would actually look at my eye this time. 

The good thing was that they did. I was escorted to a dimly lit room and asked to sit in a chair that pointed directly at a light panel. The light panel was on the wall at the far end of the room.  

They had me read the letters that came up on the panel, put drops in my eyes and then sent me back to the waiting room.

Not long after that, I was summoned to exam room 6. No one came to get me; the announcement came over the intercom, sort of like an announcement at Walmart, “There’s a blue light special over in aisle 6”. 

Fortunately, I could still see well so I found my way to the exam room and was greeted by a resident. He asked me a couple of questions and then started poking around my eye. He flashed light in my eyes and pushed on my eye while he had me look in different directions up and down, to one side, then the other. 

My eye got a good workout. 

He then wanted to do another test but first needed to turn my chair around and recline me back in it. 

The problem was that the chair wouldn’t move. He tried a couple of times and nothing. So he said, “Just a minute” and left the room.

When he came back, he had another resident with him, full of confidence. He tried to move my chair as well, but it wouldn’t budge. He then simply reached to the side, moved a lever, said “the lock was on” and left.

… That didn’t give me a lot of confidence in the resident who was working on my eye! 

After some more eye gymnastics, he told me what was wrong and said he would report this to the doctor.

When the doctor came in and looked at my eye, she told me I have a vitreous detachment, which happens naturally when we age. However, my hockey collision likely caused it to detach quickly, creating in some large floaters. 

Nothing can be done and my eye was not damaged.

Hearing her diagnosis gave me confidence that things would be alright. 

I had little confidence in the resident. … When he couldn’t move an examination chair, you have to wonder how many of these exams he had done. 

I walked out squinting because my eyes were dilated to the size of a nickels, but confident I got the right diagnosis in the end. 

Here’s the thing: Confidence can evaporate quickly with the slightest thing, often because we have put our confidence in ourselves or others. If you put your confidence in God, you can rely on His wisdom, His care and His power to diagnose and respond to every issue.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: In who or what do you tend to first put your confidence in? Leave your comments and question below.

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I Was Oblivious To What I Already Knew

Sometimes you can be oblivious to a reality even though you’ve been informed about it.

I was oblivious to what I already knew

… That statement might need a little explanation. 

Recently I needed to see a doctor. Though there is lots of news concerning the deficiencies in our medical system, it didn’t hit me until I tried to use the system.

In my previous post I wrote about poking myself in the ear with a Q-tip (read here). Well, after several days – a week, to be precise – I decided to make an appointment with my doctor.

I thought it would be as simple as phoning the doctor’s office to make an appointment – boom, done. Instead I was told I couldn’t get in to see my doctor for a couple of weeks! 

The receptionist and I thought maybe I should try a quicker solution, but it wasn’t an emergency so going to the hospital didn’t seem like the right approach. 

The decision was made to try the after hours walk-in clinic my doctor’s office is connected to. Even though the words “after hours” didn’t have a good ring to them, at least I could go that day. I was told to go right when it opened to make sure I got into the clinic. My wife, Lily, then warned me to get there even earlier. 

When I arrived twenty minutes before the walk-in clinic opened, I was fourth in line. 

I had twenty minutes to kill standing outside in line to get in to see a doctor.

I‘ve stood in lines before. One time back in 1974, I stood in line on Yonge Street in Toronto outside A&A Records to purchase tickets to see Elton John in concert. Now that was standing in line! We were about ninth in line and waited from 9 pm to around 7 am the next morning when the tickets went on sale. 

… The stories of that night could fill a few blog posts. But that was late summer and warm outside.

Not the other day, standing twenty minutes outside in damp, 0° Celsius weather. 

The line of people grew and there were several parents with children, young children and babies, lining up to see a different kind of rock star – a doctor.

I couldn’t help but think that the sight was something you would see in a war-torn, third world country. Sick people were standing out in the cold to get treatment for their sicknesses. 

I used to stand in line to play shinny hockey, but at least we could stand inside the foyer of the arena in a climate-controlled temperature. 

When they did let us in – one by one, after we signed in and took a number – you really got a sense of how sick some people were. There was a constant noice of babies, children and adults coughing and sniffling. 

I don’t think sick people should have to wait outside in the cold to get medical help. There has to be a better way.

I’d heard that there are deficiencies in our medical system but, until yesterday, I didn’t really get it. 

Here’s the thing: We can hear about God, about what Christ did on the cross, but still be oblivious to it. It is when we take the time to investigate the reality of what God has done for us that we really are able to get it. Seek who Christ is and what He has done. Then let that knowledge impact your life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you know about but don’t really know? Leave your comments and questions below.

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