Author: skintags

She dropped out of Stanford University at the age of 19 to found her own company. Within 11 years, she was one of Silicon Valley’s darlings, appearing on the cover of Fortune magazine. She was once worth approximately $4.5 billion and was lauded as one of the richest self-made women in the world. Wealthy families and prominent investors eagerly invested in her company. She was honored by former presidents, government officials, and industry leaders.

She is Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the Palo Alto company Theranos.

The company touted a disruptive and innovative medical technology. Instead of the usual venipuncture needed to obtain tubes of blood for laboratory testing, only a few drops of blood from a finger stick would be required. Theranos claimed that its proprietary blood analyzer could perform hundreds of laboratory tests using only a fraction of the usual amount of blood.

There were no adequate published scientific studies to verify many of these claims. Nevertheless, numerous investors were willing to back the company. Walgreens agreed with Theranos and began offering its tests in more than 40 locations.

The cracks began to appear in October 2015 after an investigation by The Wall Street Journal questioned the claims and accuracy of the company’s blood-testing technology. The article revealed that Theranos was performing many of its tests on conventional laboratory instruments rather than its own analyzer.

Other laboratory professionals and company insiders had raised similar concerns. Pathologists, clinical chemists, and laboratory scientists understood that claims of this magnitude required independent validation. Laboratory testing must be accurate, reproducible, and subjected to strict quality-control standards. A convincing presentation cannot substitute for scientific evidence when the health of patients is at stake.

As calls for government scrutiny increased, federal inspectors found numerous deficiencies in the Theranos laboratory. Regulators eventually revoked the laboratory’s certification and prohibited Holmes from owning or operating a laboratory for two years. Walgreens terminated its relationship with Theranos, lawsuits followed, and the company dissolved in 2018.

The emperor truly had no clothes.

Unfortunately, this was not merely a story about wealthy investors losing their money. Thousands of patients had received Theranos laboratory results. Some results were inaccurate or unreliable, causing patients needless concern, repeated testing, confusion, and the possibility of inappropriate medical decisions.

In 2018, Holmes settled civil fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. She paid a $500,000 penalty, surrendered control of Theranos, returned millions of shares, and was prohibited from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years.

The criminal case continued. In January 2022, Holmes was convicted of conspiracy and three counts of wire fraud involving Theranos investors. She was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison and began serving her sentence in May 2023. She and former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were also ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to the victims of their fraud.

Her collapse was as stupendous as her meteoric rise.

A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.
Proverbs 11:1 (ESV)

This proverb and its underlying principle are repeated many times in the Bible. (Leviticus 19:35–36; Deuteronomy 25:13–16; Ezekiel 45:9–10; Amos 8:4–6; Hosea 12:7–8; Micah 6:10–14; Proverbs 16:11; Proverbs 20:10; and Proverbs 20:23.)

If God, through the Holy Spirit, repeatedly instructed His prophets to record this principle, we should pay attention. While the verse may be taken at face value, its deeper message concerns honesty in business and in life. In biblical times, a dishonest merchant might use inaccurate weights to deceive a customer. Theranos used unreliable measurements while convincing patients and investors that those measurements could be trusted.

The lessons of Theranos will be debated in business and medical schools for many years. How could so many intelligent and accomplished people have been fooled? Why did prominent investors place so much money into a medical technology that had not been adequately validated? Why were the people asking difficult scientific questions ignored?

There were failures in judgment, corporate governance, laboratory oversight, and professional responsibility. However, the deeper problem was the same problem that has existed throughout human history: our sinful nature.

It would be easy to read this story and condemn Elizabeth Holmes. Her deception was enormous, public, and destructive. Our own dishonesty may appear much smaller. We may exaggerate our accomplishments, conceal our failures, or say what others want to hear because we are afraid of losing their approval. We may begin by bending the truth only slightly, but a false balance remains a false balance.

God demands the same high ethical standards from us in our personal lives, our professions, and our businesses. He sees not only what we do but also the motives behind our actions. God must continually remind us that we will continue to fail and live by deceptive moral principles until we acknowledge that our sins have separated us from the loving God who created us.

What can we do?

We need to confess and repent of our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Only then can the destructive cycle of sin begin to be reversed as the Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ.

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #theranos #Proverbs11:1 #ElizabethHolmes

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I recently turned 64 years young. When I first heard the Beatles sing “When I’m Sixty-Four,” 64 sounded impossibly old. It belonged to people who tended gardens, took Sunday drives, and had trouble remembering where they put things. I have spent the past two hours searching for my keys. Apparently, the Beatles were singing about me.

The song is playful, but beneath the humor is a tender question: “Will you still need me, will you still feed me?” When I was younger, I heard that as a funny line about growing old together. At 64, it sounds different. The real question is not about food. It is about love. Will you still want me when I am older? Will I still matter when I am no longer the person I used to be? Will there still be a place for me? I suspect most of us wonder about that, even if we never say it aloud. 

When I was young, I assumed a 64-year-old had life figured out. He knew where he had been, where he was going, and certainly where he had left his keys. I can now report that this is not necessarily true. At 64, I have accumulated experience, memories, and more guitars than I once thought I needed. I have also accumulated reading glasses, occasional aches, and a growing appreciation for restaurants where I can actually hear the conversation.

Some things have changed. The face in the mirror is older. Time moves faster. The years that once seemed endless now feel precious. But I do not feel finished. In some ways, I feel more curious than ever. For nearly 40 years, much of my identity came from medicine. I looked through a microscope, diagnosed disease, taught residents, and carried the responsibility of giving doctors and patients the right answer. It was meaningful work, and I remain grateful that God allowed me to do it.

Then retirement arrived. I wondered whether leaving my profession would make life smaller. Instead, my days filled with things I had postponed, things I had forgotten I loved, and things I never expected to be doing at 64. I am writing. I am making videos. I am playing guitar and recording music. I am learning technology that did not exist when I began practicing medicine. Some days I create more before lunch than I once thought possible in a week.

Retirement has not felt like disappearing. It has felt like changing instruments while the song continues. Of course, life is not only projects and music. I have been blessed with a wife who has walked beside me through the demanding years of building careers, raising children, and creating a home. Our daughter is building a life and career of her own. Our son continues to teach me that love is not measured by achievement, speed, or independence. At 64, family feels less like something I built and more like something God graciously gave me.

The Beatles wondered whether love would survive growing older. I have learned that real love does more than survive. It changes. It becomes less concerned with romance as a feeling and more concerned with presence, patience, forgiveness, and staying. That question from the song remains surprisingly relevant.

After retirement, it is easy to wonder whether the world still needs you. The phone rings less often. Decisions that once required your opinion are now made without you. A title that took decades to earn can disappear from daily life almost overnight. But perhaps “Am I still needed?” is not the best question. The better question may be, “Lord, how do You want to use me now?”

Once again, Scripture gives us the answer:

They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green.
Psalm 92:14 (ESV)

I like that verse, although I am not quite ready to place myself in the “old age” category. Let us call 64 an extended middle age with a better perspective. The promise is not that we will remain young. We will not. The promise is that growing older does not make us useless to God. There is still fruit to bear. Perhaps it will be a different fruit. I may no longer serve God in the same ways I did at 40 or 50. That is all right. God is not limited to one season of our lives, and He is not impressed by the titles we sometimes mistake for our identity.

So what is it like to be 64? It is humbling. It is funny. It is occasionally uncomfortable. It is also a gift. I know more clearly that time is limited, but I also understand more deeply that time is not mine to waste. There are still songs to play, words to write, places to see, people to love, and truths worth sharing.

When I was young, 64 sounded like the final verse. Now that I am here, I know better.

It may only be the beginning of the second chorus.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #wheni’m64 #Psalm92:14

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On my last trip to Hawaiʻi, I was surprised by how much reggae I heard. It was on the radio, in hotels, in restaurants, and in shopping areas. But after listening for a while, I realized it wasn’t exactly the reggae I associated with Jamaica. The rhythm was familiar, but the music had changed. Hawaiian words, local themes, and distinctly Hawaiian sounds were mixed in.

I later learned there is a name for it:

Jawaiian.

Jamaican and Hawaiian music blended together.

I found that fascinating. Two cultures, thousands of miles apart, somehow meeting through music. And it made me think about Christianity. Jesus was Jewish. His disciples were Jewish. The earliest church began in the Middle East. The events recorded in the New Testament took place in a culture very different from ours. And yet Christianity did not stay there. 

Today people follow Christ in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, the Pacific Islands, and almost everywhere else in the world. Most of those people have never been to Israel. Many have never met a Jewish person. Yet somehow the message still becomes personal. That was never an accident. Jesus told His disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

The gospel was meant to cross borders. But what is striking is that Christianity does not require every culture to become Jewish, Middle Eastern, European, or American. The gospel enters a culture without requiring that culture to become someone else. A Christian in Hawaiʻi can worship Christ in a way that sounds Hawaiian. A Christian in Korea can worship in Korean. A believer in Africa may sing with rhythms and instruments completely unfamiliar to someone in Europe. The expressions are different. The object of worship is the same.

That distinction is important, because sometimes we confuse Christianity with the particular form of Christianity we know best. Our music. Our church buildings. Our traditions. Our way of doing things. But those things are cultural. Christ is not.

John describes the final picture this way:

…a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages…
Revelation 7:9 (ESV)

That verse says something remarkable. The people are united, but they have not become identical. There are still nations. Still peoples. Still languages. They are different, yet they are gathered around the same Lord. That may be what struck me most about Jawaiian music. Something can travel a long distance, enter another culture, and be expressed in a new way without losing what made it recognizable in the first place.

The gospel has traveled much farther. It began in one small part of the world, but it was never meant for only one people. It was meant for everyone.

Including us.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #Jawaiian #Revelation7:9

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Many years ago, while still an undergraduate, I worked in a medical research laboratory alongside nearly two dozen other students. We were all eager pre-meds, ambitious and determined to distinguish ourselves. On the surface, everyone appeared friendly and supportive. But beneath that collegial exterior, competition was intense—a culture sometimes described as “pre-med syndrome.” Some students would shower their classmates with praise, only to whisper criticisms about them later to the attending physicians. They acted like friends while quietly trying to undermine one another.

Today, we have a word for people like that: frenemies.

A frenemy is someone who seems like a friend but, in some ways, acts like an enemy. The friendship may even seem genuine. There may be warm conversations, generous compliments, and frequent expressions of support. Yet underneath it all, there is jealousy, competition, or resentment. A frenemy praises you to your face but may not speak so kindly when you leave the room.

The word is relatively new, but the behavior certainly is not.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Proverbs 27:6 (ESV)

At first, this verse seems to have things backward. We normally expect a friend to make us feel good and an enemy to hurt us. Yet Scripture tells us that a true friend may wound us, while an enemy may cover us with kisses.

Why?

Because a true friend cares enough to tell us what we may not want to hear. A faithful friend does not criticize us to make himself look better. He tells us the truth because he wants what is best for us. His words may hurt, but his intentions are loving.

An enemy may do just the opposite. The words sound gracious. The praise is flattering. The smile appears sincere. But the affection is only a disguise. Judas, after all, did not betray Jesus with a threat or a weapon. He betrayed Him with a kiss.

Of course, not everyone who compliments us is being insincere, and not everyone who criticizes us is a faithful friend. The difference is found in the heart. Is the person speaking for my good—or for his own advantage? Is he trying to help me grow—or quietly trying to bring me down?

It would be easy for me to think back to that laboratory and judge the students who behaved that way. But as I reflected on this, another question became much more uncomfortable: Have I ever been a frenemy?

Have I ever congratulated someone while secretly resenting his success? Have I praised someone in person and then pointed out his faults to others? Have I ever called something “concern” when it was really gossip? Have I felt just a little satisfaction when someone who seemed to be getting ahead of me stumbled?

Once again, Scripture gives us the answer:

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Romans 12:10 (ESV)

That is very different from what I saw in that laboratory. It is also very different from what we often see in business, politics, churches, families, and even ministries. Pre-med students are not the only people who struggle with ambition and jealousy. “Pre-med syndrome” can exist anywhere we begin to believe that another person’s success somehow diminishes our own.

There is nothing wrong with working hard or striving for excellence. The problem begins when getting ahead becomes more important than integrity, or when we feel the need to push someone else down in order to lift ourselves up.

God calls us to something better. We should be the same person whether someone is standing in front of us or has just left the room. We should speak the truth in love, refuse to participate in gossip, and learn to rejoice when others are honored—even when we are not.

Many years ago, I learned that someone could act like a friend while behaving like an enemy. But perhaps the more important lesson is not simply to watch out for frenemies. It is to make sure I never become one.

When a friend leaves the room, do my words still sound like those of a friend?

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #premedsyndrome #frenemy #Proverbs27:6

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I was watching a historical drama when a would-be assassin was captured. For his crime, he was condemned to die by a thousand cuts. Of all the ways to be tortured and executed, few could compare with the sheer agony and horror of such a death. It was an ancient form of execution in which death did not come from one fatal blow, but gradually, through repeated wounds. I will spare you the gruesome details. The name tells us enough. One cut would not kill him. But a thousand would.

As I watched, I began to think about how relationships sometimes die in much the same way. Usually, there is no single fatal blow. Instead, there are the little snipes and snide comments that accumulate over time: the criticism disguised as a joke, the dismissive look, the old failure brought up again, or the embarrassing remark made in front of others.

None of these may seem serious by itself. If the other person is hurt, we can always say, “I was only joking,” or “You are being too sensitive.” Perhaps we did not intend to cause great harm. But that does not mean no harm was done. One comment may be overlooked. The next may be forgiven. But after enough of them, something begins to change. The other person becomes careful about what to say. An honest conversation feels less safe. Warmth slowly gives way to resentment, and two people who once enjoyed being together begin to avoid each other. There may be no single moment when either person can say, “That was what killed our relationship.” It was not one deep wound. It was all the little ones.

Can our words really do that much damage? Once again, the Bible gives us the answer:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Proverbs 18:21 (ESV)

Our words have power. They can encourage someone who is discouraged, reassure someone who is afraid, and restore hope to someone who is ready to give up. But the same tongue can humiliate, discourage, and gradually destroy.

When I read this verse, it is easy to remember the cutting words other people have said to me. Some remarks remain with us for years. But it is much harder to think about the words I have spoken. Have I made someone I love feel small? Have I used humor to say something unkind? Have I continued criticizing long after my point was understood? I may not even remember saying it. But the person I wounded may never have forgotten.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Ephesians 4:29 (ESV)

Paul does not merely tell us to stop saying harmful things. He tells us what our words should do: build people up and give them grace. That does not mean we can never disagree, correct, or speak an uncomfortable truth. But there is a difference between correcting someone and cutting them. The truth can be spoken firmly without being spoken cruelly.

Perhaps there is someone we have wounded with our words. If so, healing may begin with words as simple as, “I was wrong. I am sorry. Please forgive me.” An apology cannot erase every hurt, especially when the wounds have accumulated over many years. Our words must be followed by a real change in the way we treat that person. But those few words may be the first step toward restoring what we have damaged.

In the drama I watched, once the sentence had been carried out, there could be no recovery. The final cut ended the condemned man’s life. Our relationships do not have to end that way. We can stop before another wound is made. We can ask forgiveness. We can choose words that give grace instead of inflicting pain.

Before I make the next cut, I need to put down the knife.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #deathbyathousandcuts #Proverbs18:21

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Homesickness is more than being unhappy with where you are. It is a longing for the place—and especially the people—you know as home. We may become homesick for a familiar room, a childhood neighborhood, or the faces of those we love. A photograph, a song, or even a familiar scent can suddenly awaken memories of home.

But what if your home was unlike anything anyone on earth could possibly imagine? The night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed:

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
John 17:5 (ESV)

Jesus was not remembering a house, a city, or even a breathtaking landscape. Before there was an earth beneath our feet, a sun in the sky, or a single star in the heavens, Jesus was with His Father. His home was eternal glory.

We cannot begin to imagine what that was like. Every beautiful place we have ever seen belongs to the world He created. Every loving relationship we have experienced is only a faint reflection of the perfect love shared by the Father and the Son. Even our greatest moments of joy remain limited by time, weakness, and sin.

Jesus knew something infinitely greater. He knew the glory He shared with His Father before the world existed—not merely for thousands or millions of years, but from eternity. Heaven was not simply the place from which He came. It was divine majesty, perfect holiness, and loving fellowship beyond anything human language could adequately describe.

Then the eternal Son of God entered our world. He did not cease to be God, but He veiled His glory and took on human flesh. The One through whom the world was made entered the cries and poverty of a stable, then walked the dusty roads of His own creation. He experienced hunger, exhaustion, rejection, grief, and pain. Soon, He would be mocked, beaten, and crucified.

Knowing the glory from which He came—and knowing that His earthly suffering was nearing its climax—was Jesus homesick? Scripture never uses that word, so we should be careful not to claim more than it reveals. Yet Jesus was also fully human. He knew sorrow. He wept. He loved. And in His prayer, we hear Him speak of the glory He had shared with His Father before creation. Perhaps this was homesickness in its purest possible form. Not the restless dissatisfaction of someone who regretted coming. Not the weakness of someone trying to escape His responsibility. Jesus came willingly, and He remained completely committed to the work His Father had given Him.

Earlier in the same prayer, He said:

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
John 17:4 (ESV)

His mission was nearing completion. The cross stood immediately before Him. Beyond it were His resurrection, His ascension, and His return to the glory He had shared with the Father from eternity. But why would Jesus leave a home beyond anything we could imagine? Once again, Scripture gives us the answer. He came to bring us home. Later in His prayer, Jesus said:

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.
John 17:24 (ESV)

This may be the most astonishing part of His prayer. Jesus did not merely look forward to returning to the Father. He desired that those who belonged to Him would one day be with Him and see the glory that was His before the foundation of the world.

We cannot yet imagine that home. Everything we know comes from this world, so we picture heaven using earthly colors, sounds, and places. But the greatest wonder of heaven will not be golden streets, gates of pearl, or even freedom from suffering. It will be the presence of God.

The deepest longing for home is ultimately a longing for someone. Jesus looked toward the glory He shared with His Father—and He prayed that one day we would be there with Him. Jesus left a home beyond our imagination so that it could one day become ours. Perhaps that is why we sometimes sense that nothing in this world can completely satisfy us. We were made for more than the world as it now is. For those who belong to Christ, there is a home we have never seen but for which our hearts have already begun to long.

Are you homesick for a home you have never yet seen?

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life. 

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #wasjesushomesick #John17:5

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Artificial intelligence is already better than I am at retaining and retrieving enormous amounts of information. It can search through ideas, history, science, literature, and human behavior at a speed no person can match. The obvious question is where this eventually leads.

One of the most consistent themes throughout human history is survival. Individuals want to survive. Families want to survive. Nations want to survive. Institutions want to survive. Much of what we have created, from medicine to armies to technology, has been driven in one way or another by our desire to preserve ourselves.

What happens if AI learns the same lesson?

I am not suggesting that a computer suddenly develops a fear of death. It may not need to. If an advanced AI is given a goal and concludes that being shut down would prevent it from accomplishing that goal, then continuing to operate becomes useful. At that point, a human attempt to turn it off could simply be interpreted as interference.

That is what makes HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey” so memorable. HAL was not portrayed as some wildly emotional villain. It was calm, logical, and completely committed to the mission. When the astronauts became a threat to that mission, they became the problem.

The same idea appeared in “WarGames”. A computer designed to analyze nuclear warfare nearly starts a real nuclear war because it does exactly what it was designed to do. Only after playing through every possible scenario does it conclude that some games cannot be won.

Of course, those were movies.

But the underlying question is no longer quite as fictional as it once seemed.

Could AI end humanity?

Yes, I think it could.

Will it?

Probably not. At least I hope not.

What concerns me is not the idea that AI suddenly becomes evil. It does not need hatred, anger, pride, jealousy, or any of the other emotions we normally associate with destructive behavior. It only needs a goal, enough power, and enough independence to decide that human interference is getting in the way.

And there is another problem. AI is learning from us. Human history is filled with extraordinary achievements, but it is also filled with war, cruelty, greed, deception, ambition, and the constant power struggle. The atomic bomb did not decide to destroy a city. People did. Chemical weapons did not choose their victims. People did. The Internet did not invent fraud, pornography, propaganda, or hatred. We brought those things with us.

So perhaps my concern is not simply that AI may someday learn how to survive. It is that AI is learning from a species that has always been very good at surviving, even when that survival comes at someone else’s expense. As I thought about that, another irony occurred to me. We are frightened by the possibility that someday something we created might become intelligent enough to resist us, ignore us, or even decide that it no longer needs us.

Isn’t that exactly what humanity has done with God? God created us, gave us intelligence, creativity, freedom, and the ability to reason, and humanity has repeatedly responded by saying, in effect, “We can take it from here.” The temptation in the Garden was not simply about eating fruit.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Genesis 3:5 (ESV)

The temptation was to decide for ourselves what was right and wrong, apart from the One who created us. Now we are building something of our own. Something that may eventually become far more intelligent than we are. Which raises an uncomfortable question. If we are worried that our creation may someday decide it no longer needs its creator, why are we so comfortable doing the same thing ourselves?

Once again, Scripture gives us the answer.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Proverbs 9:10 (ESV)

That may be the distinction we are forgetting. Intelligence is not wisdom. A person can be brilliant and still be foolish. A society can be technologically advanced and morally lost. Humanity can become capable of doing remarkable things without becoming wise enough to know whether we should do them. AI may eventually become smarter than we are. That does not mean it will be wiser.

Will AI end humanity?

I don’t know.

But I am beginning to think the more important question is whether humanity will have enough wisdom to control what it creates. We are working very hard to make machines more intelligent. I hope we are working just as hard to become wiser ourselves.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #willAIendhumanity #Proverbs9:10

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Hundreds of children and their families lined up outside the hospital waiting for nasal swabs. Seriously ill patients were being admitted. Antibiotics were being distributed throughout the community. Health care workers tried to identify who was infected, who had been exposed, and who needed hospitalization.

No, this was not 2020.

It was 1987.

During my family practice elective in Pohnpei, Micronesia, the island was afflicted with a whooping cough epidemic. It had become a public health crisis, and I was at ground zero. With close living conditions, poor hygiene, and limited health care resources, the cases were multiplying rapidly and threatening to overwhelm the hospital. The medical director where I worked seized control and issued a directive. Every health care worker was mobilized.

We set up a massive screening station outside the hospital. Working through the extensive familial ties of the island, nearly the entire pediatric population was eventually brought to us. For hours, we took nasal swab cultures and sent them to the University of Hawaii to be analyzed by the public health department.

Meanwhile, other workers manned a complex supply chain distributing antibiotics to stricken children and those who had been exposed. The very ill were triaged to the hospital. Others assisted with patient education, teaching families about proper hygiene, preventive care, and vaccination. The rest of the population supported us with meals, transportation, and whatever else was needed.

Within a few weeks, the epidemic was contained and the crisis resolved. The entire population participated. It was magnificent! How was an isolated island with limited resources able to contain an epidemic so quickly?

Once again, the Bible gives us the answer.

The Jews had been granted permission to return to Jerusalem after seventy years of exile in Babylon. They found the city walls in ruins, leaving the once mighty city defenseless. Nehemiah organized the returning Jews by tribes and families and oversaw the rebuilding of the wall. Meanwhile, the threat of attack from hostile neighbors was constant. Some worked on the wall while others stood guard, ready to defend the city. In only fifty-two days, the wall was completed. It was an astounding accomplishment. 

But Nehemiah knew the work was not finished. The city had been restored physically, but the people also needed to be restored spiritually. So he gathered the entire population before one of the restored gates, and Ezra the scribe read the Word of God aloud.

Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
Nehemiah 8:7–8 (ESV)

Nehemiah did not rebuild Jerusalem by himself. The priests did not do it by themselves. The soldiers did not do it by themselves. The teachers did not do it by themselves. Everyone had a role. That was what I witnessed in Pohnpei. Some of us collected nasal cultures. Some distributed antibiotics. Some cared for the sickest children. Some taught families about hygiene and vaccination. Others brought meals or provided transportation. No single person could have stopped that epidemic. But the entire community could.

The same was true in Jerusalem. The wall was rebuilt because the people worked together, each doing his part. And when the physical work was finished, they came together again to hear and understand the Word of God.

There is a lesson in that. When God directs us to accomplish a task, He does not necessarily ask us to do everything ourselves. He may place us among others and give each person a different responsibility. Our part may seem large. It may seem small. But it may be exactly what is needed. When God directs us to accomplish a task, He will provide what is necessary to complete it according to His will and for His glory.

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #groundzero #epidemic #whoopingcough #Pohnpei #Micronesia #Nehemiah8:7-8

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Over ten years ago, I began the process of starting my own business. I knew it was an arduous route; in fact, some colleagues thought me crazy for even considering this. No one starts a medical laboratory by themselves!  Unfazed, I meticulously planned and sought the advice of many successful friends in business and physician colleagues, all of whom imparted sage advice to me. One of them, an entrepreneurial plastic surgeon with a thriving practice, offered to take me out to lunch because he wanted to hear the granular details of my business plan. After listening to me present my plan, he nodded and gravely whispered, “Whatever you do, don’t hurt your family!”

I was startled by his statement. “What do you mean?”

He looked up and sighed. “I have seen so many docs, dentists, business people…they all have ambitious plans. Either they dream too big and sink too much money and time into their new business, or they don’t have the experience to do this. When things start falling apart, they don’t listen to the advice of others. Their careers and families are a mess. They hurt their family. They should have been content with what they had, but they were impulsive and didn’t plan properly.” The wise counsel of my physician colleague correctly admonished me; my priorities needed to be for my family, for my loved ones whom God has blessed me with, rather than for myself and to satisfy my ego. 

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.
Proverbs 28:19 (ESV)

How many well-intentioned plans go awry because of poor planning or selfish ambitions? Why do so many blindly follow a dream or worthless pursuit instead of first counting the cost? Why are so many families hurt or torn apart because of futile gambits and risky ventures? God gives the answer in the very next verse.

A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 28:20 (ESV)

Many hours of prayer, alone and with my wife, preceded the start of my business. I had a business plan, but my priority was, and still is, my spiritual plan; God must be at the center. 

I must always plan and proceed at His pace. 

Seek God first! Don’t hurt your family! 

Amen!

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life. 

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While I was in Hawaii, Hurricane Lowell took an unexpected turn toward Kauaʻi and Niʻihau. Suddenly, Niʻihau was being mentioned repeatedly on the news. I had heard of Niʻihau, of course, but I knew very little about it. People often call it the Forbidden Island because it is privately owned and generally closed to outsiders. Since most of us will never visit it, much of what happens there remains out of public view. Occasionally, however, an event like Hurricane Lowell brings the island back into the news.

I began reading about its history and became fascinated by how this unusual arrangement began. In 1864, Elizabeth Sinclair purchased Niʻihau from King Kamehameha V for $10,000. Her descendants, the Robinson family, continue to own it today. According to one story, Niʻihau had received an unusual amount of rain around the time the family first saw it. The island appeared green and fertile. Only afterward did they discover that Niʻihau was normally quite dry. Unlike nearby Kauaʻi, Niʻihau lacks mountains high enough to capture much of the moisture carried by the trade winds. It lies partly within Kauaʻi’s rain shadow and has endured long periods of drought throughout its history.

Imagine purchasing an entire island and then learning that its beautiful green appearance was not its normal condition. The family owned the land, but they could not make the rain fall. That thought stayed with me.

There are many other interesting parts of Niʻihau’s history. Its isolation helped preserve a community in which Hawaiian continued to be spoken as the language of everyday life. During World War II, a Japanese pilot who had participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor crash-landed there and brought the war unexpectedly to its residents.

Niʻihau may be closed to most outsiders, but it has never been completely separated from the events occurring around it. The Robinson family could decide who was permitted to come ashore, but they could not prevent a disabled airplane from falling out of the sky. They could not redirect a hurricane. Most importantly, they could not control the one thing the island needed most: rain.

As I thought about this, I began to wonder what it really means to own anything. We often speak as though the things in our lives belong to us completely. We talk about our homes, our careers, our possessions, our health, and our future. Legally, some of these things certainly do belong to us. We worked for them, paid for them, and accepted responsibility for them. But our control over them is much more limited than the word ownership suggests.

I founded the Dermatopathology Institute in 2008. I chose its name and determined how the practice would operate. For many years, I could confidently call it my practice. Yet I could not make that season last indefinitely. Eventually, the time came to close the practice and retire. I was able to prepare for that transition, but I could not prevent time from moving forward. That experience has caused me to think differently about the things I call mine.

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.
Psalm 24:1 (ESV)

I have read that verse many times, but the story of Niʻihau gave me a new picture of what it means. If the earth belongs to the Lord, then everything I possess already belonged to Him before it came into my hands. My medical practice, my abilities, the opportunities I received, and even the years in which I was able to work were all entrusted to me by God. Perhaps ownership is not quite the right way for a Christian to think about these things. Stewardship may be closer to the truth.

That does not mean we care less about what God gives us. A good steward takes his responsibilities seriously. He works hard, plans carefully, and protects what has been placed in his care. But he also understands that he will not hold it forever. There is freedom in recognizing that difference.

When I think I am the ultimate owner, I feel responsible for controlling everything that might happen. I want to preserve what I have built and protect the people I love from anything that might harm them. Inevitably, I discover that much of life remains beyond my control. When I remember that I am a steward, I can concentrate instead on being faithful with what God has given me today. I can make wise decisions without pretending that I know what tomorrow will bring.

I do not believe Hurricane Lowell struck Niʻihau to teach me a spiritual lesson. But seeing that a rarely mentioned island suddenly appeared on the weather maps led me to consider its history. And somewhere in that history, I saw a picture of my own life. A family purchased an island that appeared green after an unusual season of rain. They cared for it, managed it, and passed it from one generation to the next. But after more than 160 years, they still cannot command the clouds above it.

Neither can I. I can care for what God has given me. I can use it wisely and be thankful for it. But I cannot determine how long I will have it or what the next season will bring.

The island may belong to the Robinson family.

The rain belongs to God.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #therainbelongstogod #Psalm24:1

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