Today I woke up a little more thankful for a new day. That's because I didn't know till yesterday that I had a blood clot in my leg. Left unchecked, such a condition can be life-threatening.
It was nearly a week ago while on a walk that I began experiencing some slight pain in the heart of my calf. I thought perhaps I had a slightly pulled muscle and ignored it. I continued my walk and even played basketball with my boys later on that day. The next day the pain grew worse, so I assumed I had aggravated this "pulled muscle" by not stopping my activity when I should have. For the next few days I forewent my usual walk, shooting hoops with the boys and such. But instead of getting better, my pain grew worse.
At that point I decided to do some research on the Internet. After consulting some medical websites, I concluded that I had at the very least a grade II calf strain. However, such an injury is typically the result of a traumatic event; there's usually no question as to when it occurred. But such was not my experience, which left me a little concerned that perhaps it was something else. My brother had experienced a blood clot in his leg (DVT) a few years ago, and the DVT symptoms are quite similar to an acute calf strain. I was pretty sure I didn't have a blood clot; still, I couldn't shake this concern from my mind.
Over the next couple of days, I did next to nothing. Yet the pain in my leg continued to increase. There was swelling and redness as well. At this point I got pretty anxious and decided to visit the doctor the following day if I didn't notice any improvement in the morning.
No improvement took place, so yesterday I was able to get in to see my doctor as early as 10 a.m. He looked at my leg, considered the symptoms, and reached the same conclusion I had -- that this was most likely a grade II calf strain. But to rule out a blood clot, he sent me to a vascular lab the next town over to undergo an ultra-sound. It was there that they discovered conclusively that I indeed had a blood clot.
This changed everything. They sent me right back to the doctor who changed my prescription entirely. I was to be put on Coumadin (warfarin) immediately, but since this would take five days to become effective, I was to take two shots of heparin twice a day until then.
I'm still not "out of the woods" but am thankful that I'm now receiving the proper treatment and should recover soon. Indeed, the Lord's mercies are new every morning; great is his faithfulness!
As I look back on what has transpired the last few days, I'm reminded of just how important an accurate diagnosis is to receiving proper treatment. When I thought I had a calf strain, I was both heating it and icing it (not a good idea). Furthermore, I had my wife put deep-heat rub on my calf and massage it (not a good idea). The doctor, thinking also that this was a calf strain, initially gave me the wrong prescription (not a good idea). All these things which were to help me, could in fact have killed me.
Looking at this matter from an evangelistic standpoint, I'm reminded of how important it is to tell people their true condition before God and to administer the only remedy that God has prescribed. Scripture informs us that the heart of every person is "desperately sick"--and deceptive! The only one who can rightly diagnose its condition is God (Jer. 17:9-10).
In reference to my own situation, I could have convinced myself that I didn't have a blood clot, but that wouldn't have changed the fact that I did and would have inevitably suffered the consequences of my condition, which was life-threatening. Scripture says explicitly, "For the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23) and that "all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23). The only remedy to our deadly condition is Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, rose from the dead, and now reigns in heaven offering forgiveness and eternal life to all who put their trust in him. "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
This is the truth. To misdiagnose people's condition is to be guilty of spiritual malpractice. We must tell people the truth if we are to rescue them.
Moreover, we must speak the truth in love. In his excellent book on evangelism, Tell the Truth, Will Metzger writes,
In all our emphasis on teaching the truth of the whole gospel, we would be denying part of this gospel if we were not listening and being sensitive to the person we face. If we don't treat people as persons when we witness to them, we deny a basic tenet of the very gospel in which we believe. If we turn this [gospel] outline into a formula, we have depersonalized those we encounter. We can be blunt about the hard subject of sin with a person, if at the same time we treat that person as a unique individual.
One more thing: When I got to the pharmacy counter to get my prescription, the pharmacist asked me, "Did the doctor tell you how much this cost?" I replied in the negative, so the pharmacist proceeded to inform me that the medication cost a little over seven hundred dollars. I about died right there! In fact, I almost considered taking the risk of waiting the five days till the Coumadin kicked in. But of course that would have been foolish. It wasn't worth the risk.
How much more is this true in reference to our condition before God? The remedy to our sin condition cost a hell of a lot more than seven hundred dollars. I don't say that lightly but literally. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bore the full wrath of God the Father against our sin. The price has already been paid. Salvation has been provided! The question is, will we receive this cure that is freely offered to us in Christ, or will we go on trying to convince ourselves that our condition is really not all that serious?
Finally, for those of us who have been cured and cleansed by the blood of Christ, will we be faithful in telling others how they too can be cured, or will we keep this remedy to ourselves, content to let the rest of the world perish in their sins?
Lots to think about.