Category Archives: Thankfulness

Small Beginnings

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Most people are curious about the Mayo Clinic and how it grew to be globally acclaimed in the medical world. Interestingly, its origin was like many other start-ups: really small.

Franciscan SisterThough the Clinic currently employs some 29,000 people, 124 years ago when it began it was just 27 beds in a small building located in the middle of a cornfield. Patients were served by a handful of Franciscan Nuns who were mostly school teachers, not nurses, unaccustomed to blood and bandages.

The only physicians were two brothers, Will and Charlie Mayo, and their father William. Will and Charlie had no hospital experience, and their father was already 70 years old when the clinic was just getting off the ground. By all rights this humble beginning ought not to have grown into a globally recognized medical empire.

There was another problem, too. In the small town of Rochester, many people were critical of a partnership made between Protestants (the Mayo family) and Catholics (the Sisters). But in spite of their sometimes divergent beliefs, they shared an overriding mission: to care for not just bodies but each person as a whole. Protestants and Catholics found common ground in believing their hospital work was more of a ministry than a business.

photo(119)But isn’t that always true when God is the Initiator of something new? He sees to it that insurmountable odds are overcome and the impossible is made possible. If we cooperate with him, taking care not to superimpose our ideas over his, he takes responsibility for the outcome, which always concludes well. But if we insist on tweaking his plans, we’re headed for conflict.

That can be true in business, ministry, marriage, friendship, government, and the church. When we let God lead (which includes us being content to hang back and follow), the results will be spectacular. Opposing sides will find themselves getting along, and divisions will melt away.

The picture of Mayo Clinic’s divergent founders accomplishing something significant in unity is a good illustration of another pair of groups originally in opposition to each other: humanity and divinity. These two were about as far apart as any two groups could be, with no hope for compatibility or unity. It was permanently impossible… until the day Jesus died on the cross.

That willing sacrifice changed everything. As a result, human lives can now intersect with the divine, not as enemies but as friends, a reconciliation that will have dramatic consequences throughout eternity.

Though the Mayo Clinic’s history is a remarkable one, salvation’s story far surpasses it. Not everyone will be part of the Clinic’s story, but all are invited to participate in salvation.

“God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Col. 1:19-20)

Mary’s Prayer Requests:

  1. For the feeding tube to work well. Since it is currently clogged, pray for an uncomplicated repair at the hospital tomorrow
  2. For abdominal/gas/hunger pains to cease.
  3. Praise for God’s Word, particularly for the book of James Mary is currently studying, and for Barb, who types and sends notes each week from the group study Mary is missing
  4. Praise for a good report from Dr. Truty today and the hope of returning home soon, to rest up for chemo

 

The Kindness of Strangers

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Whenever I talk to Mary (still in Rochester, MN), one of the things she inevitably mentions is the thoughtfulness of strangers. She can’t understand why people who’ve never met her might be interested in her situation, much less offer to pray for her.

Many of you blog readers are in the group she’s marveling over, and one of you, a woman neither Mary nor I have ever met, did something truly special last week.

Prayer shawl.In the days before surgery, someone named Rachel asked (through this blog) if Mary owned a prayer shawl. Though I’d heard of prayer shawls, I had the misconception only priests or rabbis wore them, and only in a church or temple.

My second misunderstanding was that prayer shawls were all about prayers prayed while the shawl was being worn, but Rachel straightened me out: “While a prayer shawl is being made,” she wrote, “prayers are being said for the recipient.” And here was a stranger wanting to make something beautiful for Mary, with prayer in every stitch. Astonishing.

Prayer shawlsRachel said, “The shawl can be used in any way someone would use a shawl, as a wrap, as a covering when resting, or just to touch while it rests beside you.”

I called Mary, and it didn’t take 2 seconds to say “yes”. For some- one who believes wholeheartedly in the power of prayer, such a gift was of grand proportions.

As God would have it, the shawl (of Mary’s favorite color) arrived in my mailbox the day before I drove to Mayo Clinic. The evening before surgery, Mary and the rest of us went out to dinner, Mary’s last food-by-mouth for many weeks (due to her feeding tube). Over coffee and dessert she opened the box.

Prayer shawlOnce again she was stunned by the kindness of a stranger. As it turns out, Rachel has made prayer shawls for many: she became a widow shortly before I did and wrote, “My husband was a great part of this ministry. He might come home from the dog park, the grocery store, or the community center and tell me about someone who was dealing with something in their life he thought would be made easier if they had a prayer shawl.” And Rachel would get to work.

Her selfless act for stranger-Mary moved us all, challenging us to watch for strangers in our own lives who might need encouraging. We never know when that person might be a messenger from God, because with him, anything is possible.

IMG_0605Rachel closed her email with, “I’m honored for the opportunity to make this shawl for Mary.” And now she is a stranger-no-more.

“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:1-2)

 

Mary’s prayer requests:

  1. Praise for grown “kids” taking time off work and driving far distances to spend time with Mary and Bervin
  2. Praise for God’s provision of co-workers in Mary’s ministry work at home, who have picked up the slack for her since February 15
  3. For relief from rumbling gas pain in her abdomen
  4. For steady weight gain, despite only relying on the feeding tube for nutrition

Not Mary!

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Hotel roomMary and Bervin spent last week living in a hospital room at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Then over the weekend she graduated, making a move to a hotel across the street, walking over there on her own steam.

Throughout the week Mary pushed herself in every category. When nurses asked her to take 4 hall-walks a day, she took 6. When they asked her to get out of bed and sit in a chair a couple of times, she did it many. When she felt loopy from pain meds, she asked that they be decreased. Despite several set-backs, especially with nausea, she beat the surgeon’s prediction that she’d be in the hospital at least a week. Not Mary!

Most of us quickly seek the path of least resistance, because it’s the easiest way to go. Our natural bent is to find comfort, especially in the case of physical pain. But then there are those special people who quietly set comfort aside and take wise action instead, acknowledging that comfort and wisdom don’t always go hand-in-hand.

Fanny MayFor example, Mary loves chocolate. Good chocolate, like Fanny May. She says, “I’m familiar with each piece in the box. The curly-cues on top identify the filling inside, and I know them all.” Yet she wouldn’t dream of eating one after another. Not Mary!

Last week when several of us were in her room at Mayo’s, the Pain Management Team swept in, 3 doctors in white lab coats armed with clipboards and expertise. With knitted brows they studied the numbers on the IV and epidural screens, amazed at the low doses.

“You’re getting only minimal doses,” they said. “Would you like to increase them?” Not Mary! Her pain level was already manageable, a result of not medicating herself through the years.

How does a person get like that? Mary wasn’t always. She and I did some crazy things as teens and twenties, but the difference came in that she was quick to learn from her mistakes and their consequences, while I had to make them repeatedly to gain the same ground.

Mary often mentions dad’s example of being moderate in all things (except moderation, which was an always-thing). When she talks about him as a role model she’d like to emulate, I remind her she’s been doing it for years.

And now, with the raw discovery of pancreatic cancer and the massive surgery following it, her wise way of living has come in handy. She didn’t need high drug doses and felt stronger quicker than expected, even escaping her hospital room sooner.

In the hotelShe and Bervin will stay at the hotel near the hospital for a week or so. They’ll learn to manage her temporary feeding tube (batteries and bags of formula), making sure she’s close to professional help if needed.

May her speedy recovery continue!

“Wise choices will watch over you.” (Proverbs 2:11)

Mary’s prayer requests:

  1. Praise for Bervin’s exceptional care, love, and closeness
  2. Praise for the abundant “milk of human kindness” from so many
  3. For Mary’s patience while her “insides” heal
  4. To get the knack of managing the feeding tube