Joanie was scheduled for surgery. “I’m getting my affairs in order,” she told me.
Joanie had come into my life as an older, wiser friend not long after my mom died. She became my mentor. A reminder that God’s Word is all that matters. A reminder that Jesus is that Word for my life.
“My surgery is to repair an aneurysm,” Joanie explained. “It’s a routine procedure. But, whatever the Lord’s got going here is fine with me.”
A few days before the surgery, Joanie’s two daughters flew in to be with her. Joanie called to tell me she had a grand idea. “We’re going to have a joyful night on the town.” Later, I learned that night was special indeed. Over a leisurely dinner, Joanie and her daughters shared many memories. They laughed, then cried, then laughed some more as they lingered over a single glass of white Zinfandel. Later, they returned home to curl up in the living room where they continued their story-telling late into the night. Somehow, I had no difficulty hearing Joanie tell her daughters, “I gotta tell you girls. Whatever the Lord’s got going here is fine with me.”
When Joanie’s son called to say he would drive down to be with her, she assured him there was no need. “You stay with your family right now. I’ll see you soon.” Then she penned him a loving letter with words that can only flow from a mother’s heart. The note ended, “Whatever the Lord’s got going here is fine with me.”
On the morning of the surgery, Joanie woke early. She slipped out the back door to say good-bye to her two dogs, the faithful companions who greeted her this morning as they did every morning. Coming back inside, she slowly walked through the rooms of the house, touching her lips and planting a “kiss” on the photo faces of her husband, children, and grandchildren. She sighed, then picked up the bag she had carefully packed the night before. With one quick glance over her shoulder back at the house, she walked to the car. No one but her Father heard her say, “Whatever you’ve got going here, Lord, is fine with me.”
The surgery did not go as expected. There were too many complications. My friend’s body grew weak and could no longer fight the battle of life over death. In the distance, she could hear the great choir of heavenly angels praising God. “Whatever you’ve got going here, Lord, is fine with me.” Then, a brief hesitation. Did Joanie hear one of her daughters say, “We must let her go.” Did she hear the other cry, “No!” Joanie waited as if she were giving her daughter time to adjust her thinking and receive the same peace that was now flowing through the mother. It was not easy, but both daughters agreed, “Mom is ready.” And they entrusted her to God.
Days later, Joanie’s daughters opened the bag which their mom had packed for her hospital stay. In it were all the things that a woman would take for recovery from surgery — a few toiletries, nightgown, photo or two of her family, books for passing the time, and well-worn Bible. Looking through the items in the bag, they paused to remember the behavior of their mom the morning she left home for the hospital. They heard her sigh and saw her lingering glance at the house. They knew she had written a “good-bye” letter of encouragement to her son. But, at the same time, here was a bag filled with the items one would need for life.
Joanie truly believed, “Whatever you’ve got going, Lord, is fine with me.” She lived each day ready to do those things God had already prepared for her to do, yet she kept her eyes focused on the Savior who would one day carry her home. In the time that I had know her, Joanie spoke with excitement about her eternal home with Jesus. Yet, never had I met anyone more content to be in the present — loving souls and sharing the Word of life.
Joanie departed my life much too soon. Plans had been made for her to spend a week in my home. I anticipated that visit. I needed more time learning at the feet of my mentor. Learning how to adjust my attitude. Learning to focus less on self and more on Christ. That visit did not happen, but others will. With all confidence, I anticipate daily visits with Joanie in our Father’s house.
With eagerness, Joanie expected Jesus to come for her. She only hoped she would not stand before Him ashamed. Therefore, whether she lived or died, it would be to the glory of her Heavenly Father (Philippians 1:20-21).
“Whatever You’ve got going here Lord is fine with me.”
Ezerwoman's Blog 
Sexual Menu?
Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, Parenting & Education, Relationships, tagged children, faithfulness, future of marriage, generations, harm, infidelity, Iowa, man, Mercatornet, monogamy, New York, parenting, same-sex marriage, sexual menu, social trends, suffering, woman on July 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »
I disagree. So does Michael Cook, the editor of Mercatornet. In his article of July 11, he asks: “Anything else on the menu?”
He offers three reasons why the legalization of same-sex “marriage” will, indeed, affect our culture. All come from authors featured in the New York Times. First, Michael Cook notes the commentary of Katherine M. Franke, a Columbia University law professor. She confessed that she really didn’t want to marry her long-time lesbian partner anyway. Why lose the flexibility and benefits of living as domestic partners? Cook quotes professor Franke, saying as far as she was concerned, “we think marriage ought to be one choice in a menu of options by which relationships can be recognized and gain security.”
“One choice in a menu of legally supported relationships?” Cook asks. “How long is the menu?”
Cook offers a second reason why legalizing same-sex “marriage” will impact society by highlighting another article in the Times by Ralph Richard Banks. Banks is a professor at Stanford Law School. What comes after gay “marriage”? Banks “puts his money on polygamy and incest” because legal prohibitions on either practice are losing strength. Society forbade them in the past because they were seen as “morally reprehensible;” therefore, society felt “justified in discriminating against them.” I follow Banks’ reasoning. Just as homosexual advocates are working hard to shift our thinking and normalize the behavior God calls a sin, so will advocates of polygamy and incest.
Two more behaviors, Cook notes, are added to the “menu of [sexual] options.”
The third reason why legalized same-sex “marriage” will have a domino affect on the culture is voiced by Dan Savage. The Times describes Savage as “America’s leading sex-advice columnist.” He is syndicated in at least 50 newspapers. Here’s what Cook writes about Savage. “Savage, who claims to be both ‘culturally Catholic’ and gay, thinks that gay couples have a lot to teach heterosexual couples, especially about monogamy. Idealising monogamy destroys families, he contends. Men are simply not made to be monogamous. Until feminism came along, men had mistresses and visited prostitutes. But instead of extending the benefits of the sexual revolution to women, feminism imposed a chastity belt on men. ‘And it’s been a disaster for marriage,’ he says. What we need, in his opinion, is relationships which are open to the occasional fling — as long as partners are open about it.”
Cook continues, “Traditional marriage — well, actually real marriage — is and has always been monogamous and permanent. There have been and always will be failures. But that is the ideal to which couples aspire. They marry ‘for better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part’. The expectation is exclusivity in a life-long commitment.”
Cook believes that legalization of same-sex “marriage” will most assuredly “affect the attitudes of young couples who are thinking of marriage a decade from now . . . it will be one of a number of options . . . they will have different expectations . . . marriage will include acceptance of infidelity, will not necessarily involve children, and will probably only last a few years.”
Advocates of same-sex “marriage” in New York say it’s good for marriage. Cook concludes:
“In a way, they’re right. Just as World War II was good for Germany because out of the ashes, corpses and rubble arose a heightened sense of human dignity and a democratic and peaceful government, same-sex marriage will heighten our esteem for real marriage. But in the meantime, the suffering will be great.”
Amen.
Mercatornet: Navigating modern complexities
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