{"id":3518,"date":"2010-04-22T19:41:28","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T23:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=3518"},"modified":"2010-04-22T19:41:28","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T23:41:28","slug":"thems-the-breaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=3518","title":{"rendered":"Them&#039;s the breaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/view.picapp.com\/default.aspx?term=broken leg&#038;iid=263635\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.picapp.com\/ftp\/Images\/0260\/2d57c082-b0ea-4d7f-b00a-79df35e70d9a.jpg?resize=315%2C480\" width=\"315\" height=\"480\"  border=\"0\" alt=\"Doctor looking at a x-ray\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/cdn.pis.picapp.com\/IamProd\/PicAppPIS\/JavaScript\/PisV4.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here\u2019s another of those insights<\/strong> that many of you probably have already figured out. But I share it on the chance that a few of our visitors may be even more spiritually immature than I am.<\/p>\n<p>As you know, I\u2019m a big fan of Dennis Prager\u2019s radio show. Today he was promoting a charity called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.helpcurenow.org\/site\/c.nvI1IeNYJyE\/b.3389445\/k.B837\/Non_Profit_Charity_Help_for_Physically_Disabled_Children.htm\">CURE International<\/a>, which provides medical services in the Third World.<\/p>\n<p>He talked with a physician who told a story which intersected (in my mind) with something I was thinking about, and gave me an insight which, frankly, frightens me. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The doctor told about a little girl whose legs were deformed in some way. They dragged her to the operating table, he said, screaming, <i>\u201cDon\u2019t touch my legs! Don\u2019t touch my legs!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>But, he said, you should have seen her face when they removed her casts some time later, and she was able to stand straight for the first time in her life.<\/p>\n<p>And I thought, \u201cYou know, that\u2019s just like me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of the things I\u2019ve always feared (fortunately I\u2019ve avoided it so far) is breaking a limb and needing to have it set. The thought of somebody grabbing the very part of my body that just got hurt, the part that I want most to protect and favor, and giving it a sharp yank, just gives me the willies.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the same way in our spirits. When we\u2019re hurt, our natural instinct is to protect the injured place. To let nothing get near it.<\/p>\n<p>But often the only way to fix it is to hurt it. I think that\u2019s why God so often seems cruel. What looks like sadism to us is actually His practitioner\u2019s hand, manipulating us back into the right place.<\/p>\n<p>This doesn\u2019t solve the Problem of Pain, of course. That&#8217;s a huge and protean leviathon, almost as hard to master, in its way, as suffering itself.<\/p>\n<p>But I think it may account for some of the pain in our lives.<\/p>\n<p>Now all I have to do is act as if I believe this.<\/p>\n<p>Ouch.<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s another of those insights that many of you probably have already figured out. But I share it on the chance that a few of our visitors may be even more spiritually immature than I am. As you know, I\u2019m a big fan of Dennis Prager\u2019s radio show. Today he was promoting a charity called &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=3518\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Them&#039;s the breaks<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}