Our first President, George Washington, had a motto for his life that he endeavored to live: “Deeds not words.” Reading this, I thought about how simplistic and yet how important that our lives as Christians be characterized by that motto. James 1:22–24, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”

Hospitals are important and wonderful places—when you’re sick! I am grateful for people in the medical professions who have dedicated themselves to helping people in difficult physical conditions. In many ways, it is much like ministry, in that it is people work, and those people have crucial and time-sensitive needs. I marvel at the dedicated professionals in this field who can walk into work; forget about their own problems; and focus on the needs of others for sometimes ten to twelve hours at a time.

Two days before Thanksgiving, my wife, Diane complained of some pain in her abdomen. She normally has a high tolerance of pain, has never really had health issues, and rarely takes so much as an aspirin! I could see from the grimace on her face that she was seriously hurting so at five in the morning we made our way to the emergency room at the hospital. The main door was closed due to carpet cleaning so we had to pry open a side door to get in. Once inside and completing the paper work, we were ushered back to a bed in the hallway. After a few hours and some preliminary examination, it was determined that she needed to have a cat scan to determine the problem. She drank the dye at 10:15 and was promised the exam by 11:00 am. Read more »