my ways are higher than your ways

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, "

declares the Lord.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55:8-9

This is the verse I'm clinging to today.

A dear friend's father is lying in a hospital bed, on a ventilator, with no sedatives.

Three days ago he was fine. Two days ago, he had mild "stroke" symptoms, he was taken to the ER, he was stabilized. He showed small signs of damage (slightly slurred speech, loss of some function on the left side), but he was "fine". Cutting up. Laughing. He would be fine, with some rehab therapy.

They took him for an MRI at 10 o'clock Thursday night. Just a routine test to make sure there wasn't anything they were missing. He laughed with his wife as they rolled him out of the room. She waited patiently for him to return.

As soon as the MRI was over, he went into respiratory failure and "coded", as they say it in the medical world. "Code blue" was said over the loudspeaker in the hospital, and my friend's mom had no idea that it was her husband they were talking about...until the social worker and chaplain came to get her.

Can you imagine?

My friend and his wife had gone to bed that night, thinking everything was going to be ok. Dad will need some rehab, but he's going to be fine. Praise the Lord it wasn't something worse.

They were awakened by a phone call at 12am, his mom telling him what had happened. Needless to say, they packed their things, put their 2 girls in the car, and left for Ohio at 2am in the morning. Drove all night, arriving at the hospital around 12pm yesterday (Friday).

Now they're there. Watching his dad. Lying in a bed. Looking great. His vitals are fine. His heart is beating well. But he's on a ventilator. With no sedation.

If you know anything about ventilators, you know that any time a patient is on one, they are sedated, because the second the patient starts to wake up, they generally claw at the cords and try to pull the tube out of their throat.

As it turns out, the MRI showed a large mass at the base of the brain stem. This mass was the cause of the "stroke", which turned out to not be a stroke at all. At the time of the MRI, the mass either caused a hemorrhage or started bleeding itself, and because of where the mass is located, it took out all respiratory function. Which led to the code blue.

My heart is heavy for my friends, and I'm so very sad for their entire family.

And listen to this. My friend's wife was scheduled to teach at Crave (a women's event at Momentum Christian Church) this Friday, August 13th. Interestingly, the topic she was going to talk about was peace. She felt very strongly that the Lord had laid that on her to teach, and she's had a heavy burden to share the message He's been teaching her, about peace, over the last few months. With all that's going on, she will quite possibly still be in Ohio on Friday, and even if she's not, she will be exhausted and emotionally spent. Obviously in no condition to speak in front of a crowd of ladies.

I just wonder. Why did the Lord pick this date for Crave, and put that heavy burden on her for peace, knowing she would not be there to teach it?

I know one glaringly obvious answer is that now she is at least well-versed in what the Lord has to say about peace, so she and her husband can cling to those verses during this time, and share them with the rest of the family.

But why else?

When I asked Him, He responded with this, so I'm clinging to it:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, " declares the Lord.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55:8-9