Catching Up

I can't decide whether this month has flown or crawled by.  It seems like months ago, that Philip and Brian went to Maputo for Philip's exams, and then Philip seems to have been back for aeons - yes I know that is not internally consistent, but really time is behaving in an oddly telescopic fashion.

We are delighted with Philip's SAT results - satisfactory enough that there is no need for him to consider trying to do better.

I am working on not trading off my satisfaction with exam results against my concern for Brian's back, since they are quite different issues.  Brian is in Pretoria recovering from his third procedure to try and deal with his back problem, this time it was surgical, and he is currently recovering in Intensive Care on one of those beds where they swing you from side to side to turn you over.  I am grateful that the Neurosurgeon in Nelspruit was able to diagnose the problem and refer him on, and hopeful that this surgery will deal with it.  Somehow, I didn't quite understand that the surgery was so major - probably my lack of hospital experience (for which I am grateful).

God is teaching us many things in the midst of all this, not least that He is truly Sovereign, and that suffering is a common tool in the process of our purification.  So many friends are going through terrible suffering, and I realise that God, very graciously, draws his people together through such experiences - the fellowship of suffering is a bond, even though the individual sufferings are of different kinds and in different degrees.

I am reading "The Godly Man's Picture" with a friend, and "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment" as part of the Puritan Challenge - the Puritans don't restrain themselves from applying Truth uncomfortably, but nor do they fail to remind us of God's mercy and work in our lives.