Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.

• Genesis 9:21

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Ephesians 5:18-20

If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.

• Deuteronomy 21:18-21

I was watching my favorite television show in the afternoon of Maundy Thursday.  One of the questions dealt with whether it was okay to see a doctor who had an alternative lifestyle.  The panel basically said that unless that lifestyle interfered with them performing their duties, the focus should be on two things.  Is the doctor competent?  Can you trust the doctor’s advice?

In the discussion amongst the pastors on the panel, the youngest said that he would not trust an alcoholic surgeon.

That brought me back to my teenaged years.  My Dad had a tumor in a lymph node partially in the shoulder and partially in his neck.  The tricky thing was that the tumor was wrapped around his jugular.  My Dad had to trust the surgeon to remove the tumor without cutting anything else.

The most trusted surgeon in town…  Okay, at this point, the only surgeon in town, but my Dad could have driven less than 20 miles away to younger surgeons who might have more up-to-date techniques.  The old surgeon in town had been a young surgeon during the Korean Conflict.  He had worked at a M*A*S*H (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) during the Korean Conflict, and when he got home, he was hooked on alcohol, and we lived in a dry county.  But that did not keep this doctor from performing surgery.  It never did when he was in the Army.

But you can imagine what twenty years of drinking yourself to sleep each night does to the human body.

My Dad was awake through the entire surgery.  The surgeon had the usual banter.  If you have ever had surgery before, you know the kinds of questions that come up, the kinds of jokes that are told, etc.  But then, the first incision had to be made.  The surgeon asked for a scalpel and the nurse slapped it into his hand.

As my Dad described it, his hand shook like he had the palsy.  If the scalpel was next to the skin, you could forget about the jugular vein.  He would have been cutting from ear to ear as the scalpel swung back and forth.

But then, as if by a miracle, the scalpel touched just the right spot, and the hand was back to being the hand of a skilled surgeon.  No more shaking.  The alcoholic surgeon removed the tumor, never harming the jugular, and my Dad lived for over forty years afterwards.

The old surgeon soon retired.

The young pastor would not trust such a surgeon, but my Dad said that he said a prayer as the hand with the scalpel approached his neck.  “Lord, you tell us to not trust mankind, but put all our faith in you.  I trust you, Lord, to help this surgeon so that he does not make a mistake.”

Sometimes, we have to trust people, but my Dad’s prayer shows we are really only trusting God in the long run.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.