eyes

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Urgent Care Doesn’t Always Mean It Will Be Quick

Well it was Monday morning and I was driving down to the Urgent Care Centre at the hospital. 

urgent care doesn't always mean it will be quick

They used to call it “Emergency” and maybe they still do, but not at the hospital I was on route to. 

Urgent Care is for those who think they need a doctor and can’t wait for an appointment with a medical worker. 

Let me tell you, when I arrived there was a long line of people who were looking for some quick answers to their issues. The variety of problems was extensive, there was no order to who was next, and the people kept rolling in. 

It reminded me of going to the local barber shop when I was a kid. 

It was usually a Tuesday evening and us kids were lined up along the windowsill because all the waiting chairs were taken by adults. There were maybe 10-15 of us looking to get buzzed – yes, “buzzed”; that’s what barbers did to kids in those days. 

The cut itself didn’t take long, but there were so many of us, and there was no numbering system. You had to know who was in front of you and who was after you or there was going to be trouble. 

And that’s how I felt going into urgent care. There was a sea of humanity and no one was keeping track of the order in which we came in. 

… And, by the way, that was just to get to triage!  

I found myself calling out to others, “Who was last in?” I wanted to know where I stood. The guy next to me said, pointing, “You came in after the guy over there.” 

So I asked that guy who came in before him. He had no clue. 

A few minutes later I was taking charge of the room, figuring out who was next and what order we were moving in toward triage. 

… Man, has nobody been to an old-fashioned barber or what?!

The reason I was at the Urgent Care Centre was to have my eye looked at. A couple of days earlier, while playing hockey, a guy ran into me on the ice. It was a pretty good collision and we both went down hard. 

I didn’t think too much about it, but several of the guys asked me if I was okay. I just thought they asked because I was the senior citizen of the group. 

Later that evening, however, I noticed some flashing lights off in the peripheral of my left eye. I didn’t think that was a good sign. 

So Monday morning I was at Urgent Care, waiting for 3 hours to see someone about my eye. When I finally got to see a doctor, she didn’t get closer than 5 feet from me. She listen to my story and said, “We can’t check that here; we don’t have the equipment.” So she made me an appointment for the next day at the eye clinic. 

So much for Urgent Care. Maybe they should rename it to the “We Care Unit” and leave it at that. 

There wasn’t much “urgent” about any of it. (Stay tuned for part 2.)

Here’s the thing: Most of us want answers to our problems – fast … yesterday, if that could be arranged. But often, even when we think our issue is urgent, the answer takes some time. God knows what you need and when you really need it. Just take your concern to Him and let Him work out the timing. God’s timing is always perfect.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What urgent matter do you need to leave with God and His timing? Leave your comments and questions below.

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My Eyes Need A Fine-Tune Adjustment

I don’t think my eyes are as finely tuned as some other people’s.

My eyes need a fine-tune adjustment

Lately I’ve been working on some projects using saws, drills, screws and what not. 

I built a teleprompter using an old picture frame, plywood and an aluminum strip. I just made a rig for my teleprompter and camera to fit on a tripod stand. 

I also got the parts to make a jig for my router. I need to cut a groove in some 2x4s for the top of my fence. 

Now you need to know a few things about me. Woodworking and making things with my hands have never been things I am proficient at. In fact, there was a time when I was banned from using anything sharp … well, I was allowed to use a knife to cut my food. 

You see, I had had a couple of accidents. 

First, I was cutting off the bottom of a door. I did a few things wrong: I used the wrong saw and, instead of cutting the door while on a flat surface, I held it up with my hand. The saw slipped off the wood and the very toothy saw blade ripped into the base of my index finger. 

… Let’s just say we had to replace a few ceiling tiles that had red stains from when I flung my hand up. 

That was a trip to the hospital. Fortunately, I missed a tendon and still have full use of my finger.

About three months later, I was using a utility knife to cut a strip off some hard board. The knife slipped and sliced the same finger, only this time near the tip.  

That was another trip to emerg in order to stop the leakage.

Besides my issues of cutting myself with sharp objects, for some reason I can’t seem to get anything straight. My eyes are just a little off. I can get things close, but not perfect. 

When I am cutting things with a circular saw, my cuts go straight for the first part but end up veering slightly to the left or right. When I’m drilling a hole, I can’t seem to make a hole that isn’t on a slight angle. When I screw two pieces of wood together, they might not come together perfectly inline.

I’m not saying that my measuring is off. I think I just need my eyes adjusted. I’m usually close, but close isn’t good enough. 

It’s like my eyes need to be tuned a bit, brought into sharper focus. 

I’ve been watching YouTube videos, getting tips on making these projects and they look great on the screen. The carpenters seem so precise. They do it with ease. 

But when I go to make something, I’m off just a bit. My end result is not quite like the example. 

Now I’m about to make a jig, and I am going to have to drill about 32 holes, evenly spaced, around an 8×10 piece of plexiglass. What are the chances I will actually be able to drill in the middle of each of my markings? 

Here’s hoping. 

Here’s the thing: At times in your life, things don’t come together the way you would like them to. Even with all your trying, you can’t make it work out right. You are just not seeing the situation correctly and you need an eye adjustment. God will be your expert help to fine-tune what you don’t see correctly. Don’t live with something that isn’t quite right. Seek God for what you don’t see and let Him adjust your eyes to see clearly. 

That’s Life!

Paul 

Question: What do you have trouble seeing clearly? Leave your comments and questions below. Hit the like button if you found this helpful, and subscribe to keep these posts coming.

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I’ve Just Witnessed A Modern-Day Miracle

The other day, right in my kitchen, I witnessed a miracle take place.

witnessed a modern-day miracle

I can’t say that I saw the transformation happen before my eyes but, without a doubt, a complete recovery took place that no one could deny.

It was a tulip that had died. I didn’t check its vital signs, but you could tell. It had been drooping for a day. I had actually tried to prop it up a bit so it matched the other tulip in the vase that was standing up straight. 

But by the next morning, the petals were curled and the stem was bent over the vase like a dead cowboy slumped over the back of a horse. It was kind of like a scene you’d see in an old western movie. 

Some might say it still had life in it, but I could tell this tulip was a goner. 

At very best it was only “mostly dead” … I picked that up from the movie, “The Princess Bride” where the hero was killed by the villain. His friends took him to Miracle Max to see if there was anything that could revive him. Miracle Max said there was one thing in his favour, that he was only mostly dead. 

But even Miracle Max didn’t think there was much hope for the hero. He sent them off with a pill and, as they waved goodbye to the hero’s friends, his wife asked him if he though it would work. Miracle Max simply said, “It would take a miracle.”

Well, that is what I witnessed in this tulip this morning. 

You could call it “all the way dead” or just “mostly dead” but this poor little purple tulip did not have a chance to revive outside of a miracle.

It was mid-morning when we noticed that the flower had gone the way of the flowers in the field – it was blown away. 

… That sounds like another reference to the old western gunslinger movies. 

There was nothing more we could do for this delicate, limp tulip. 

But then my wife recalled something. She had heard that if you put a penny in the water, the flower would come back to life. 

I didn’t believe this for a minute. I would have bet more than a penny on it not working. And unlike most people, I still have pennies … in a big container I use to collect coins in. 

Pennies themselves have been wiped off the face of the Canadian landscape. I may be the last bastion for them.

I went to my stash and got two pennies … because I didn’t think there was enough healing power in just one of the cheaply made little coins that have been discontinued. 

To our surprise, by lunch time that tulip was standing up straight as an arrow, and the shape of its petals looked remarkably like it was smiling at us. 

There you have it – it’s a miracle! 

Here’s the thing: The real miracle happens when a person, who has lived his life for himself, discovers that God loves him and sent His son, Jesus, to die for his sins. For that person to receive Jesus as his Saviour and then see the change in how he thinks, how he treats others, what he put his energy into and what he holds as important is an absolute miracle. No one could do that – only God, the great miracle worker. God has a miracle for you if you want it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What miraculous thing have you witnessed? Leave your comments and questions below.

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I’ve Been On A Wild Ride

It was a wild ride and I hadn’t gotten out of bed yet. 

When I turned my head and opened my eyes, my bedroom seemed to be moving. I knew it wasn’t, so I turned over and closed my eyes to see if I could make the ride stop. 

Sometimes that’s all you can do. 

I remember when I was a kid, my brother, another kid, and I went to the EX (CNE – Canadian National Exhibition). 

This is one of Toronto’s historical end-of-summer traditions. We would even get a ticket to kids’ day at the Ex with our end-of-year report cards. 

It was near the end of the night; we were going to go on one last ride. We decided on the Toronado, a roller coaster-type ride. 

But we accidentally got in the wrong ticket line and bought a ticket for the Zipper instead. The Zipper was more like a merry-go-round type ride … only with a sinister twist.

The first clue was the seats you rode in. You were in a cab that seated four people. But it was a cage, because you were completely enclosed. There was a big wheel in the middle of the cage, coming up from the floor that could turn. 

The cage we were in started to go around in a circle, but then it also started to flip around. It was like the earth that goes around the sun but also spins as it goes. 

Let me tell you that on a much smaller scale than the earth sun scenario, this was a wicked ride.

We were thrown back against the cage and the only way to avoid the centrifugal force was to hang on to that big wheel in the center. 

We all took turns. You could spin the wheel to make the cage go faster, but we just tried to slow it down. 

Half way through the ride we all gave up. Plastered to the outer walls of the cage, we closed our eyes and hung on till the end. 

Our heads were spinning; we were dizzy to the point of nausea. Thankfully no one threw up – that would have been ugly! 

I never wanted to go on that ride again and I never did.

That is what you call self-imposed vertigo. 

I’m not sure if what I had this morning was vertigo, but it sure reminded me of that ride … only it wasn’t self-imposed.

The first time I got up, I stumbled to the bathroom like a drunken sailor. I went back to bed after that and closed my eyes to wait out the ride. 

My wife, Lily, told me there was some infection going around that causes vertigo symptoms and there were a number of people that had it. 

I sure don’t want to be one of them! … I’m thinking that maybe I was a little tired after a very long, busy day yesterday. 

I think a good game of pickup hockey will fix me. Maybe the vertigo will help me deke past other players today.

Here’s the thing: Life can get so busy, it leaves you spinning. When you get to that stage you need to slow things down. You need something that will intervene in all the crazy busyness. Two things can help: Break away; get somewhere different, somewhere quiet and calming. The right scenery helps – something peaceful. The second thing is connecting to the God of all peace. If you will spend time with Him, and listen to Him, God will help you see straight so the way ahead is clear. 

That’s Life,

Paul

Question: What has you spinning around in circles right now? Leave your comments below.