Permit me to break a bit from the format, won’t you?
Oh, don’t worry. I don’t mean that I won’t ramble endlessly.
All I mean is that I’m not going to set up the rambling via a film or book or
video game, that’s all. We’ll get straight to the point. Relatively speaking.
Straight to the rambling? Yeah.
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| Unfortunately, the real Silas isn't terribly attractive, so I'm using this photo of a child model instead, since attractive people deserve sympathy more than uggos. (Full disclosure: I lied. This is Silas. Isn't he a cutie?) |
I want to talk about my first cousin once removed. His name is
Silas. He’s the son of my cousin Kristen and her husband Harvey. Harvey is in
the Navy and works on a sub and he would have hated my post about the short-lived TV show Last Resort because he cannot
watch a show set on a submarine without nitpicking and missing the show
entirely while critiquing the number of steps on that stairway leading from the
bridge to the constabulary or the composition of the metal alloy used in hatch
B3. He’s not the sort of guy you want to watch Hunt for the Red October with. Of course, it’s the same reason I
can’t take Castle or Murder, She Wrote seriously. I mean, they actually have
times in those shows when the police seem to resent the priceless input of
writers into murder investigations! It’s preposterous. But I should stop this
digression because my cousin-in-law’s failings as a television-watching
companion are not terribly pertinent, and I don’t want to punish my first
cousin once removed for his father’s shortcomings.
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| I am sharing this face swap of President Obama and Chris Christie for two reasons: 1) My wife Shannon has an irrational love of face swaps and I love to make her smile; 2) I cannot think of a better way to signify my commitment to an apolitical blog than this. |
And, honestly, Silas has enough problems as it is. In fact,
the poor boy has had countless health problems in his three years of life. Questionable
diagnosis has followed questionable diagnosis, and we’ve wondered at times if
we would ever know for sure what precisely was wrong with him, and how to help
him. But it looks like at least some of those questions may be answered.
It seems like all these problems may stem from incredibly rare
genetic mutations. In fact, it’s looking like Silas may be the only person in
recorded medical history to suffer from this particular variation of these
diseases. The child is certainly unique, but this isn’t much to celebrate.
Unfortunately, to get the proper treatment and the
accommodations in life that he needs, Silas requires pricey genetic testing to
finalize the diagnosis. Although his father is active duty US military and
Silas has their health insurance, Tricare will not pay for the testing. They’re
looking at somewhere in the ballpark of $25,000 for the required testing. I
almost want to type that I wonder how much it would have cost back before the
US had affordable care enacted, but I really don’t tend to get political around
here so I won’t go there.
So pray for Silas, Kristen, and Harvey, please. You’re good
readers. I know you’ve got my back and I know you’ll have theirs. If you’re so
inclined, there is a GoFundMe page set up where you can help them meet their financial needs through
donations. Whether you give or not, sharing the page on Facebook or Twitter or MySpace
or Google Plus could also be helpful. And if you have anything to give, my wife
is putting together an online auction in which the proceeds go toward Silas’
needs. I’m kicking in e-copies of all my books, of course, and have reached out
to other author friends to do the same. If you’re an author, this sort of thing
is a no-brainer if you ask me. Ebooks don’t cost us anything, we get to help
out, and it’s even good publicity. And, indeed, some of my author friends are
helping out too. Anyway, if you’d like to donate anything to the
auction—anything!—go ahead and e-mail me
and I’ll put you in touch with my wife, so I can deal with any spam that arises
from this and she doesn’t have to. I don’t know exactly when the auction is
supposed to get going, but I’m sure I’ll announce it on my Facebook page when the
time comes so there’s a plug for that. Oh, and since blog posts are timeless,
I’m writing this in early April 2014 and so just bear in mind that, if you’re
reading this in May 2088, you might be a bit late to
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| And, for our friends from 2088, here's a picture of the view outside your window right now so you can feel all comfy and homey! Art credit: paooo (http://fav.me/d471bob) |
But don’t worry. The rest of this post won’t be nearly as time
sensitive. Let me say first of all that all the problems my little first cousin
once removed is having really suck. I mean, poor Silas is only three years old!
I think it’s pretty fair to arrive at the conclusion that this isn’t exactly fair. Three year old boys should be
running and jumping and playing in mud and peeing on inappropriate things and
people indiscriminately and eating turtles and catching wombats and playing Doctor Who and all that (disclaimer: I’ve never actually raised any boys),
not combating incredibly rare genetic mutations! It’s bullcrap!
And, for some people, it’s precisely this sort of thing that
precludes their belief in or acceptance of a loving God. So let’s talk about
that. Because the Bible does indeed explain why a relatively innocent child
like Silas can be afflicted with a horrible illness. Of course, you can choose
to reject what God has to say. You don’t have to like it or accept it. But
please don’t suggest that the turmoil, violence, chaos, disease, and overall crappiness
that afflicts this world is somehow inexplicable within the pages of Scripture.
Rather, it fits perfectly.
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| I'm clearly not speaking to any concierges reading this. If you're a concierge, you clearly can't help but suggest stuff even if I tell you not to. But everyone else should stop. |
More on that in a moment. First, permit me to briefly get
scientific. I don’t do this very often given that, despite my high school
career at the Battle Creek Area Math and Science Center—which was for advanced students, not those who needed extra
help, thank you very much!—my mind is actually much more creative and inventive
than analytical, cold, and calculating (that pretty much describes scientists
and mathematicians, right?). The last time I really delved into a defense of biblical creation, it was really much more of a
theological argument than a scientific one: God simply used His human author to
word the Genesis account in such a way to completely preclude the possibility of
defending millions or billions of years of evolution through Scripture. The six
days of Genesis simply cannot be reconciled to modern evolutionary theory. God
anticipated (of course) the latter and developed the text deliberately to
contradict that. It is only by twisting the Bible and completely ignoring the
author’s clear intent that anyone can bring the two concepts together.
But this much I do know: when we hear about someone having a
genetic mutation, it doesn’t mean that Patrick Stewart is finally going to get
to open his special school for mutants. That’s not real life. What’s going on with young Silas
is much more in line with what genetic mutations have to offer in real life.
They’re bad. When DNA is corrupted,
we are looking at the loss or perversion of normal genetic material,
not the invention of new, beneficial changes. It’s tragic. While again
reiterating that I am not a scientist (truth be told,
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| If I ever buy a bowtie, of course, I'll buy a fez to go with it. Fezzes are cool. |
All right. Enough of that. Back to the Bible. First of all,
let me assure you that I am definitely praying for my FirCoz1Mov’d whenever he
comes to mind (I decided to abbreviate it a bit, as first cousin once removed is a bit cumbersome). I care about the
little guy and his family and hate to see them all suffer as they fight their
way through this. I’m behind them completely, and obviously one of my chief
purposes in writing this blog post is to spread the word about what they’re
going through, to ask for prayers and donations. I believe I offered the
sentiment earlier, but permit me to repeat myself: this sucks.
Yes, this sucks, but the Bible makes it very clear that
suckiness will come. That doesn’t necessarily make it any better, but we at
least can be confident in the fact that this of course does not take God by
surprise. And we don’t have to start pointing fingers like biblical Israelites
trying to ascertain which parent sinned for the child to be afflicted like
this. This isn’t divine punishment.
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| Having said that, I reserve the right to alter my position if fire and brimstone should start raining down on the boy. |
Oh, that’s not to say that sin is not involved at all. On the
contrary, sin is at the very heart of the issue. We simply don’t have to be
pointing fingers at individual sin in the life of Silas or his family
members—but sin is still very much to blame. God made a wonderful, beautiful
world for us to live in, and He is such an artist that it still retains so much
of its majesty and splendor, but it has been ravaged by sin for tens of
thousands of years. Sin touches everything.
Yeah, we know it ruins lives and families and marriages and churches and
friendships and communities. The human fallout from sin is well documented, and
none of us have been immune.
But it goes deeper, to the point “that the whole creation has
been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Rom. 8:22). Jesus
spoke of earthquakes, famine, and war as birth pains as well (Mark 13:8). We
think of sin in terms of actions and consequences, and there’s truth to that,
but sin as a cancer has infected absolutely everything this world has to offer.
We cannot for a moment forget the fact that we live in a fallen world because
that truth manifests itself daily in Chilean earthquakes, Ukrainian invasions,
widespread corruption and, yes, rare genetic mutations. This world is broken. Disease,
violence, and natural disasters are all symptoms. The groaning of creation will
only increase until Jesus returns to restore all things; eventually, this world
will be put out of its misery, to be replaced with a shiny new model (Rev.
21:1).
This is not to say that God does not intervene. We know that
prayer is effective and we have countless biblical examples of His direct
intervention as He wills (James 5:16-17). I believe entirely that He still
performs miracles today. Why does He sometimes choose to stay His hand? I
cannot begin to say. There comes a point where you finally realizes that He is
so far beyond us that I have no right to question why He does what He does. I
cannot see what is going to happen two minutes from now, and yet am I going to
presume to know better than the One who knows and sees all? We know that He
uses tragic circumstances and difficulties to mold us and give us opportunities
to grow closer to Him (James 1:2-4). This may offer small comfort in the midst
of our grief and fear, but even then we can have the comfort of knowing that He
is
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| This doesn't have the slightest application to the post. It's simply one of my wife's favorite face swaps. |
Again, you don’t have to accept any of this. Faith can seem
almost impossible when hope seems farthest and circumstances most dire. I
understand that. But it’s true regardless. I will not be the one to offer empty
platitudes to my cousin and her family, I assure you. Like I said: it sucks.
God may well have a wonderful plan to grow them all and bring oodles of glory
to Himself through this nightmare—indeed, I hope He does!—but where they’re at
right now would still suck. So I won’t try to pretend that I know how they’re
feeling; I won’t try to guess for them what God wants to teach them through
this. Not at all. Rather, I’ll donate my books to the auction. I’ll pray—for
strength, for comfort, for healing for Silas, for the cash to get the proper
testing done. I cannot really have faith on their behalf, and yet I do believe
with all my heart that God is not surprised by these developments; that He
loves Silas, Kristen, Harvey, and Violet; and that He sees the whole picture
whereas I can barely grasp what’s happening now. And I’ll ask for your prayers.
Oh, and I’ll link to the donation site one more time. I can’t do much, but I can do that.
