Monday, October 28, 2013

Hayleigh: She Walks!

She Walks! 


Step by step, Hayleigh is getting there.  Her room, once full of machines, is starting to get a bit barren.  ECMO gone.  Ventilator gone.  IV drips gone. She has moved from 20L oxygen (strength of flow through nasal canula) a week ago to 0.50L today.  She eats solid foods, has started physical therapy, and constantly talks about ‘getting out of here.’  “Daddy, what do I need to do next to get out of here?”  Love the determination of this girl. 

She is even starting to do homework.  Her class is reading ‘Our Town’ in school and so she has started to read this classic, Pulitzer Prize winning Thornton Wilder play.    A Yale professor writes the foreword in the edition we are reading, and something very interesting jumped out at me this morning.... 

He writes about reading ‘Our Town’ as a teenager and being bored.  Its ‘old fashion values’ no longer resonate with a modern public that knows far more than Wilder knew.  The professor confesses he had seen the play a few times, thought he knew it, and didn’t think much of ‘Our Town.’  

Then he went to an ‘Our Town’ production at the Lincoln Center which remains his most memorable theater going experience of his life.  He writes “I was so mesmerized by it subversive power, so warmed by its wisdom, so shattered by its third act, that I couldn’t believe ‘Our Town’ was the same play I thought I had known since childhood!”

He rushed home to re-read ‘Our Town’ only to find that what he had seen on stage was very little changed from what he had read and seen all those years before.   And then it dawned on him…what had changed was HIM.  He had enough life experience by that point in life that he finally understood what was so great about ‘Our Town’

Why did this strike me so significantly this morning?  Because if you replace ‘Our Town’ above and insert ‘The Bible’ you will have my story.  Maybe its your story too.

The Bible was boring to me as a teenager and young man.  It seemed so old fashioned and out of place in our modern world, so trite compared to the wisdom of the world.  I knew the stories.  I had been to church hundreds of times.   But the Bible never really interested me. 

And then the thunderbolt happened to me on a bumpy ride after serving with our church in the slums of Kenya.  While the experience in the slums opened my eyes, the thunderbolt that shifted my faith came from a scientist.  

Because evolution was taught as fact, not theory in all my schools….and because the logical extension of evolution is that ‘there is no God’ I asked this scientist “How are you a Christian if science is so clear that there is no God?”

And she looked at me and said “Andrew, I’m a Christian BECAUSE of science!  I came to believe in God during my molecular biology courses in college.  When I analyzed all the chemical reactions that have to take place for even the simplest of simple cells to live, I knew there was no possible way all those reactions could have happened by chance.  Anyone who believes that life just spontaneously started needs to take a course in probability and statistics and really study molecular biology.  I knew then there had to be a God.”

And that led me to read books by respected scientists like Jim S. Francis, leader of the Human Genome Project and currently Director of the National Institutes of Health. 

His book “The Language of God” irritates fundamentalists and atheists alike and for that reason alone is a book that should be read!  He believes in evolution but also very clearly outlines why he believes God exists as the Creator of life.  That book helped me get over my ‘science / evolution’ block toward God. 

I stopped reading the Bible as a science book and started reading it as a letter from God to us.  And that 12 inch journey I wrote about last week of Jesus moving from my head to my heart started to happen. 

And suddenly the Bible was TOTALLY different to me…..  I was so mesmerized by its power, so warmed by its wisdom, so shattered by its sacrificial acts, that I couldn’t believe ‘The Bible’ was the same book I thought I had known since childhood.  

It became alive.  I became alive!

About 2 years ago when this process really started changing me, our church did a series of videos from regular families in the church.  I thought of it today and chuckled at some of what I saw.  I hope it brings a smile to your face as well....



As noted in the video, I tried many methods but nothing 'stuck' for the longest time.  The 'start in Matthew' process referred to began for me in the summer of 2011.  The emails began then too and this year our family went through Scripture Union's E100 Challenge during our mission trip.  

My prayer tonight is everyone reading this note has that ‘Our Town’ experience with ‘The Bible’   

God bless,

9 comments:

  1. Thank you for this post Andrew. I am enthralled with science (which is really a procedure toward gathering empirical data) and in love with God. I have never experienced the divide you describe because I was fortunate to have a father who was both a scientist and a linguist/classicist/theologian who taught me how to read an ancient text. I have been so frustrated with how both science and God have been portrayed throughout media and even i the halls of universities and religious institutions. There is no conflict, only discrete domains. The universe was written by God in the language of mathematics! And the great epistemological questions of life can never be answered by science, because they are outside the domain of science. One cannot approach them through the scientific procedure or method. It would be like asking "What number is yellow."

    I am so thrilled to see how well Hayleigh is doing. What a beautiful child!

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    1. Tess, I so wish we had talked on matters of faith years ago! Thanks for your note and I agree wholeheartedly with what you have written. "What number is yellow?" Perfect!

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  2. Comments from email:

    Here was my reply comment. There seems to be some bug in publishing. I tried twice. Great to hear of Hayleigh's progress and yours :–)

    I am so thrilled, Andrew, to hear of your journey in the past few years of getting to know Jesus better through the bible. And I am so glad to hear of Hayleigh's wonderful progress in fully receiving the complete health that Jesus paid such a heavy price for her and all of us to have. "Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers." III John 2. And soul prosperity comes from reading the bible. That's where we are able to both sort it out and settle it in our heart that God loves us and wants the best for us, and come to an understanding of this world we live in with so many countering and confusing voices. If you want to understand a flat screen TV you don't ask the TV, you go to the source, the manufacturer of the TV. If you want to understand the world we live in you don't ask the world or any part of it, you go to the creator of the world.

    May you and your family continue to be blessed in very area of your life as we walk out this part of our journey of life.

    Richard Foster
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    Wow...great way to begin another day! Hayleigh's continued recovery and your spiritual ephiphany...both heartwarming and inspirational examples of God working in our daily life. Thanks for sharing my bus ride to work. :). Take care and XXOO for you and your family! Love, Lynne
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    Our God is a very Great God! He is worthy, He is Exalted. I thank God for all He has done to Hayleigh and family.

    I pray that Hayleigh will come stronger and stronger.

    Thank you Lord.
    Elisante Daniel, Arusha Tanzania
    ===============

    Such great news! Well done Hayleigh and well done you Andrew, such a rock for the family.
    xxx

    Fiona from Australia

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  3. I am reading this with tears in my eyes
    Hayleigh is such a inspiration to me even though she is my sister
    Go Hayleigh!!!!!
    <3 Sarah <3

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  4. Thank you for this post. I have been praying for your girl and am so happy to see her progress! As a life-long christian, I have been struggling with the science vs. religion debate for a long time. I feel like I have come to an understanding within myself about what I believe thanks to some amazing christian science professors in college. However, I struggle to explain it to my son who has a scientist mind, and as a child with Aspergers sees the world in black and white. I will be getting this book and hope it will help me have the words. I want my boy to have faith in the lord and learn from the Bible, but still be able to be a great scientist! :)

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    1. Carisa, thanks so much for your note. A couple of other books you and your son may find interesting... "The Wonder of the World: A Journey from Modern Science to the Mind of God" by Varghese.

      Also, you could read prominent atheist Anthony Flew's autobiography “There Is A God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.” What changed his mind was science and specifically DNA. Page 74-78 provide the best synopsis if you don't want to read the entire book.

      Finally, I included a number of logic based books and what I think is one of the strongest logic based arguments for Jesus being exactly who the Bible says He is in this post:

      http://tsfga.blogspot.com/2013/10/hayleigh-faith.html

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  5. Comments from email....

    Great to see your family in the blog and I love your message. Looks like she will be home soon.

    Ray

    By the way, a good book to get anyone interested in the Bible is called, "The Whole Bible Story" by Dr. William H. Marty. Easy read and a good way to understand the order of things. It will make you want to read the Bible to get the details.
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    We love seeing our Lord work in Hayleigh's life......one day at a time!

    Jack and Lynne Spearing (from Israel tour)
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    Just a short note to say that I appreciate you so much. I love the way that you are so authentic and open in sharing your Christian journey. Thank you for sharing your personal story with SO many people. I thank God for using you in this way, and for connecting you and Rachel with Gail and I in such an amazing, and surprising way. We continue to pray for you, Hayleigh, and your entire family each day. I think about you each day, knowing what it is like to spend day after day in the hospital. I pray for you to get rest, for patience as Hayleigh heals, for Hayleigh’s health to continue to improve, and for your continued witness to those around you. I get what it means when Hayleigh asks you what she will need to do to be able to go home. These tough times teach us some of the most amazing things about ourselves, and about our amazing God.

    I am thankful that you are sharing your story, and that you recognize your purpose in all of this.
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    Thanks for the update Andrew. Hayleigh looks just as happy as she is determined!

    Stephan


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  6. Wow, to see where Hayleigh is today compared to a few weeks ago. Simply the hand of God! Blessings, Greg and Brenda

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  7. Great to see Hayleigh up and around again! Keep getting better and better Hayleigh!

    Loved your "Our Town" / Bible analogy, Andrew, and hearing your voice again on the video!

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