Nothing Normal About Today

This phrase that I read the other day just kind of left me with my mouth just a little open when I stopped and thought about it, "There is nothing normal about today."  But, so true that it is.  There is absolutely nothing normal about today.  Stop and think about everything that your body must do today to survive.  Yeah, we actually don't stop and REALLY think about that until you have a life and death problem of something in your body not functioning properly.  We take life for granted.  James 4:14 says, "Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes."  I don't think I really grasp that, maybe none of us really do.  We are here, but yet we could be gone...poof, just like that.  We are the mist that you see and then all of a sudden you don't see it.  We all know we will die at some point but I know I don't really think about it that often.  I am thankful every morning that I have been given another day to live here with my children.  But today is just Monday, right?  It just hit me like a ton of bricks that there is nothing NORMAL about any day that we are alive.  I mean the very fact that God is making my heart pump in all the correct directions and all the valves open and close properly, is in fact amazing.  So many people dread tomorrow.  They dread what they feel, what they will think, and the saga continues.  Why?  Why waste this amazing life we have dreading tomorrow and thinking that today is just a normal day.  If you think it is a normal day, then do something ABNORMAL.  Make it feel not normal.  Do something today, now, while you are breathing, and magnify this not normal day.  We are that vapor that may fade away in just a few seconds.  Life is real and it is fading with every second.

How blessed so many of us are to be able to run to the doctor when we think there is "this, that, and the other" wrong with us.  We have the means to drive to the doctor, pay the doctor (or pay it out or as many US residents do they never pay), get the appropriate medicines for whatever said ailment (so many of which are not life threatening, just a nuisance).  In so many parts of the world this scenario is a fairytale.  I exclude the United States in this because if you need it you can get medical care whether you can pay for it or not.  I will argue with anyone on this one, because having worked as a nurse for almost 10 years, ANYONE in the United States can get care.  It doesn't matter if you pay or not they cannot turn you away.  Millions of people in this world do not even live near anywhere they can obtain medical care, much less ever pay for it.  Costa Rica is not Africa, but the people here are poor.  If you follow me on Facebook then you know of the prayer request for Myra.  Saturday afternoon David stopped by her house on his way to a Bible study and didn't even know she was home.  Her daughter told David that she was in the bedroom and that she was sick.  Come to find out she was so sick that her daughter called the Red Cross of Costa Rica the night before because her heart was beating so fast, she had a horrendous headache, nausea, and profuse vomiting.  She is not a resident of Costa Rica.  She is Nicaraguan, so she cannot obtain socialized medicine here.  The Red Cross would not come see her because of this.  So, her daughter called the private ambulance that is located in Atenas, 20 minutes from her house.  This cost her daughter $45.  That isn't much money in our thinking.  But it is a ton of money to these people.  They came to her house, did an EKG, and checked her blood pressure.  This is where some of the medical details get a little unknown, but going off my medical knowledge, I am assuming they gave her an injection for the nausea and vomiting or a pain medicine (because there isn't anything else I can think of that they would have given intramuscularly).  They gave her this medicine and told her she needed to go see the doctor the next day.  She had a horrible reaction to the medicine.  It made her stomach even more unsettled and her hands were very swollen and red as a beat (they were still like this the next evening when I saw her).  She did not want to go back to see the doctor the next morning because it would cost her $25 and she didn't have the money to pay for anymore medicine that would make her feel even worse.  They did not have the money.  That was the problem.  No money equaled no medical care or medicine.  David called the private doctor that we had met earlier in the week (this same company is the one that saw her the night before) and she agreed to see her Saturday afternoon.

Her extreme pain and discomfort is high blood pressure.  Myra has known for 3 years that she had high blood pressure but did not know it was what was causing these "episodes."  She left this untreated because she didn't have the money to pay for the medicine.  Blood pressure medicines are so cheap.  Yet, this was not an option for her.  She chose food for her children instead of medicine to keep her alive.  This is also a place where people are not very educated about medical  problems.  One of those episodes could have caused her to have a stroke, leaving her unable to care for herself or her children.  But, this is the reality here to so many people.  And even if you are a Tico it may be months before you can see a doctor, because it is socialized medicine.  So, if you really have a problem, you still have to have money to see a private doctor.  The doctor gave her 7 days of medicine to try and if it works then she will give her a prescription for it.  Thank you so much for the prayers on her behalf.  The doctor was very sweet and did not charge David for her to be seen and will follow up with her later this week at no charge as well.


My point in all of this is that something so SIMPLE for so many of us is so DIFFICULT for most of the world.  Most of the world live day to day without food, clothing, shelter, and healthcare.  And most of all they live without Jesus.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:45, "Then he will answer them, saying, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me."  It is up to us who know Jesus to take care of these people.  I challenge us all to make today and everyday we are blessed with an ABNORMAL day.