Love Is The Answer

9 years ago, these were the different entries in my journal I kept for my child:

my journal entry on 9/11/01

“Today, America was waken up by the cold-blooded murders of innocent people…..”

“Daddy [my hubby] woke me up and called me from his cell phone. He broke the news about this evil act of terrorism. He was riding in one of the Metrolink trains, bound for his work as _____ [someone who loves to serve and protect this country’s freedom]. I hated the fact that you [my son] would wake up to this kind of violence…”

“This tragic event would change America’s history - forever…”

How do you just explain to a very young mind, waking up to that evil act in front of the tv set, that somehow, some enemies found some vulnerabilities in America, where they could intentionally harm it and its people. Land of the free. Land of equality…?”

the gruesome headline that morning

Some wounds heal. Some wounds don’t. This is the kind of wound that America had sustained from its political and spiritual enemy. It cut so deep that Americans’ hearts would be forever marred. But I believe that through “love”, wounds do heal. The scar would forever be there. But I believe….love is the answer:
For love is not biased……It’s the people who choose to be unfair.

Love is never cold….It’s the people who choose to be unresponsive and lack with enthusiasm.

Love is a special gift…It’s the people who choose not to share it with others.

Love can spread and be infectious….It’s the people who choose not to communicate it.

And “God” is love…It’s the people who choose not to recognize His greatest attribute…

“Listen to me, all you who are left in Israel. I created you and have cared for you since before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime - until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you. To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” - Isaiah 46:4-5

“O Israel, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? How can you say God refuses to hear your case? Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted and young men will give up. But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” - Isaiah 40:27-30



Father God, I remember all the pain, all the hurt that morning. It still comes to mind as fresh as it was 9 years ago. Because I know this nation wept. Because I know You wept.

Lord, to those who lost their loved ones on that day, please cover them with Your strength and comfort. To those who have been enveloped with fear, please sustain them with the courage that comes from Your powerful hands.

Lord, please protect us and continue to guide us, as we continue to walk in our own journeys. Despite the pain, despite the wounds, help us grow in Your likeness. Help us share Your faithful and unconditional love with those who don't know or acknowledge You. Guide the leaders Lord in this country and give us a revival in all of our hearts. To know You. To seek You. To turn back to you. And turn away from all those things that do not glorify You.

Lord, help the people of this great nation to come together and because of Your love, be united instead of being divided out of all our differences. Help us not wait until another tragedy comes to be united. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Survival Seminar

I forgot…today would be the second day for my husband to attend the “Street Survival” seminar. An important seminar for those who are serving in the law enforcement that inspire or motivate them, not only to survive but to win. Not to win as in power struggle. But to win against the bad elements in different areas in our society.

The “I love you” I often uttered was held this morning as I handed him a freshly-brewed cup of coffee. A little misunderstanding we had from the previous night we both nursed in our hearts and grew worse as nighttime fell. I watched his quiet steps disappear into darkness, as the cold air brushed against my face.

I ran upstairs and I knew I needed to talk to the One Who had been hurt, watching the both of us act this way. And the hurt slowly melted away as His Word talked to my spirit. I just knew. The ugly things of this worldly ways I was programmed with, would always clash with the renewal of mind that would only come from Him. The kind that’s true. Honorable. Right. Pure. Lovely. Admirable. Excellent. Worthy of praise. And peace did come sweeping over me.

If my husband was going to a survival seminar, I knew I needed to do my own. To help my marriage survive. To help us win against the spiritual enemy who is always active in destroying what is good. To win?

“No!!!” Not to win.

“I am a winner!!!” and so is my husband. Because of our faith. Because of Jesus.

“I’m sorry,” I uttered as I heard a soft sigh on the other end of the line. A little conversation. But precious and timely. We both knew our exchange of words would bring the healing. The forgiveness. The restoration.

“Take care. I love you,” I uttered as he did the same.

And my cell phone rested back on the ledge as I started charging it. I softly prayed:

“Thank You Lord for recharging us at times that we feel drained out from all the fights and trials we are facing daily. Thank You for Your Word. For Your guidance. For Your protection. Without You, we are not going to win. But because of You, we truly are winners! In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

Even if my husband and I seldom have misunderstanding, I know we both must be aware of the survival techniques that comes from the Lord. To my hubby, I love you and thank you for always being there for me...

“And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.” - 2 Corinthians 3:18


“And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.” - Philippians 1:6


“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.”
- John 10:10


“A final word: Be strong in the Lord’s mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the devil. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.” - Ephesians 6:10-12

Fake Emergency

“I’ve been having this chest pain just this morning,” a middle aged female inmate stated in between her sobs, as the LVN and I took her vital signs. She never had any problem in her heart known and nothing was in her medical chart. Except, I noticed she often came if not in the Clinic, through the morning sick calls in her unit, to see the nurse for many different complaints.

“Okay, Ma’am, I’m going to try to do an EKG…” I barely explained and she cut me off.

“No! There’s no way that you’re gonna’ do that thing! I had it a while back and it made me shake!” she yelled as her tears continued to flow.

“Ma’am, there was nothing wrong with the machine if you felt that way. Because it wasn’t supposed to hurt,” I explained.This time, we determined everything was normal with her vital signs.

“You have the right to refuse but if you do so, I couldn’t do anything but send you back to your unit, no matter what happens because EKG would be the only thing I can use now to determine if there’s anything going on in your heart.”

Seeing the deputy nearby, she got up and stepped toward the medical exam room I opened and where I had prepared the table and the EKG machine awaiting to be used. The LVN [who was African and I described her race because of what would ensue] who was always a nice lady and always helpful to staff, especially with me as we both worked nights together before and had gone through many busy shifts helping each other, continued to assist me.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am, you need to remove your bra and your shirts so we can apply these sticky electrodes on the right spot!” I explained as I slightly closed the door and with just the LVN and I and her, gave her as much privacy I could.

She had a feat! She raised her hands up on the air and yelled, “Oh, what now? Am I supposed to go naked now? C’mon! I’m not in Africa!” she yelled. It was obvious to us, that she wasn’t having true chest pains for her to make it hard on the nursing staff from the beginning of her sick call. Demanding things she said she needed. Yet, she was refusing what we needed to do on our part. And I saw how offended my co-worker felt when she heard what she just uttered!

There’s just so much patience a person can have.

When I heard that as I was walking away, I made a u-turn and went back to the room and raised my voice.

“What did you just say?” I asked.

“Here we are going all through these troubles to help you out even though it’s obvious that you’re not having true medical emergencies. Yet, we try to respect you. And what did you just say?” I kept ranting.

“If we are respecting you, you must respect us, too!” I continued without pausing as she didn’t expect that and as she heard me say those things, she tried to be defensive with her tears and complaining again with chest pains. The Infirmary deputy heard me and she went inside. She heard how she was being a hard patient with us. She started yelling at her and told her to stop.

“Let me just finish the EKG deputy,” I stated. And it was normal. I signaled for the deputy to let her go. The deputy told her to get up and get dressed and she knew she could be in big trouble that I could put her on discipline, meaning limiting some of her privileges for faking her medical emergency. But I opted not to. I told the deputy she wasn’t the only one who manipulated the system to make it appear that they were having medical issues. They faked their conditions and used them to show the court that they were too sick that they might not be in the right state of mind to commit whatever crimes they did. Hoping that the judge would pardon them and perhaps, release them form the jail.

“All I need was a wheelchair!” I heard her tell the deputy.

“You don’t need it! You don’t need anything in fact! But you need to go to your unit and I’m going to call your deputy there so they know that all you did here was act up and cause troubles with the staff! If you do it again, you’ll be in big trouble,” she warned.

Don't we all at some point, try to manipulate God? Instead of following what He wants for us to do, we try to earn His love or favor by doing good deeds. Isn't that manipulation? There is nothing that we can do to make Him love us more or less. God can't be manipulated. He desires our true worship. He wants us to love Him with all of our hearts, all of our minds, all of our strength. We don't need to fake that we are doing well when we are truly broken inside and in need of a Savior. Freedom awaits to those who are willing to receive the sacrifice of a Savior. And obedience to God leads the way to that path toward freedom. We were His...Twice His!!!

RICE

I saw her grew quiet. Constantly rubbing the top of her right shoulder, her brows met together with a fretted look.

“Are you okay?” chorused my co-workers and I to our charge nurse.

“Just waiting for the Motrin to work,” she softly answered.

I covered her assignment for a couple of hours as she warned the PM shift that she would come in at 1:00 a.m. instead of the usual 11:30 start of her shift last night. Few minutes before 1 a.m., I saw her shadow emerged from the Female side of the Clinic as I responded to her buzzing the bell on the wall.

As she sat down on her familiar chair, she recounted her incident of falling earlier yesterday. She tripped in her home, and landed hard with her right arm, stretched outward. She felt pain, more like soreness. Like what I had written before, us, nurses, are being stubborn most of the time and waiting always for the symptoms to get worse before seeking medical help [you’d think we should know better]. She was not concerned as she didn’t feel severe pain and that she didn’t dislocate her shoulder.

Only an hour had passed since her arrival, the growing concern on her face was just plainly visible to us, her co-workers.

I had her lift the sleeve of her right arm. I noticed some swelling. Accepting my offer to wrap her arm with a compression bandage [Acewrap], I tried to recall my previous expertise of looping the elastic wrap without causing much pain to her already painful arm.

“Sorry, Rcubes. I think I need to go home early and would like to ask you if you can cover for me when I leave. I’m gonna’ go ahead and go to the Urgent Care. Thank you so much for wrapping my arm. It does feel better,” she commented.

“No! Go ahead! Leave if you need to,” we all said with concern. “I know the pain…” I added, as I told her about my own incident of hurting something on my upper back few weeks ago. It was not the same but the pain was much better. Where I hurt, was the same spot now for her source of discomfort that I could just relate so well. She felt better with all the caring wishes she received. I prayed silently for the Lord to heal her injury.

Things happen to all of us unexpectedly.  Death comes inevitably. Plans get ruined. Money and other resources become scarce. Relationships get broken. At times, these trials drive us to God. But we must not think that going to Him will make our trials and troubles go away or disappear just like that. If we think that way, then we will have the wrong desire to turn to God just so we can be relieved of all these sufferings.

God did offer comfort to all of us. He is after all, the Best Comforter.  His comfort is that kind that encourages us, strengthens us in our weaknesses, and gives us the hope when everything seems to be hopeless. His comfort helps us to learn how to endure. And as we do so, we, in turn, with the right set of mind, are able to comfort others as they go through their own trials. Especially if what they are going through is the same as what we had gone through.

“All praise to the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.”

~ 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 

If you sustain any acute, soft tissue injury like sprain, strain or contusions, think about the acronym RICE.

REST - rest and protect the affected part

ICE- apply ice or frozen object like a bag of corn or peas sitting in your freezer. The cold prevents swelling. Do it for 20 minutes, three times a day for the first 48 hours.

COMPRESS- the affected area by using an elastic bandage [You’ll see those tan colored Ace wraps]. Make sure you don’t wrap the area too tight to prevent cutting off the circulation.

ELEVATE - put the area higher than your heart. Like raising the arm or leg by supporting it with a pillow or a rolled blanket. This also helps reduce the swelling.