I would like to say I am sorry for being off these pages for the last couple of weeks. I am a pastor first and foremost, and the last few weeks have been really busy. The blog is back today, though!

         It was the first time I had ever heard of the question, although it is going to be a regular inquiry from now on. At first, I was a little taken aback, but as I thought about it, I understand the need for the question, especially in today’s social climate. A patient is to have surgery. One of the nurses, who comes around before the patient goes in for the procedure and asks question after question, walks in to the room and pulls out a clipboard and starts in.

          “Please excuse the question, but were you born male or female.”

          Just wat you don’t want to discuss immediately before surgery. But, when you think about it, it does make sense. You don’t have to stay with the sex you were born with. If you don’t like being a female, you can become a male, and visa versa. Not everyone retains their gender from birth. It is called gender reassignment. It requires surgeries and medications and counseling, but you can be given a new gender. For that matter, you can simply start living as a member of the opposite sex and begin to declare that you are something different and, in many places, you become different with a courts ruling. Back before same sex marriages were made legal, I knew of two young women who wanted to get married. One of them filled out the paperwork and was declared a man. They are even parents of two children, although “Ryan” had no part in the conception.

          But back to question; the reason it has to be asked is pretty simple. Even though a person might have all the surgeries and all the medications and all the counseling, there are still differences between the male and the female body. A surgeon, of course, can do surgery on either. But, if they go in on a male body and find something pertaining to a woman, they could make a mistake or they might have to change the whole procedure on the spot since the patient is already opened up. Asking if you were born male or female would be considered the least offensive way to gain the information. Medically speaking, it is a question that needs to be asked.

          Many would say that this is the society we live in. It is confusing and misdirected and, most of all, corrupt. All true. But another thought comes to my mind. Regardless what you think you are, what your sexual orientation is, what you feel like on any given day, you are what you are born to be. Someone will say, “Not so! Many babies are born as hermaphrodites! What do you say about them?” Just so you know, a hermaphrodite is someone with the sexual organs of both male and female. First, it is a birth defect. Second, only 0.033% of babies born in the USA are hermaphrodites. That is not 0.033 of every 100 births. It is 0.033 percent of all births, which is a really small number. Since it is a birth defect, many of these have other problems and may never reach adulthood. So, we are left with the fact that we are what we were at birth, regardless of how we feel about it or what we do about it.

          The question, after mulling it over in my mind, led to another thought. In the Bible, the human body is often used as a metaphor to explain our Spiritual essence. The whole passage dealing with the Spiritual armor is using physical things to explain Spiritual truth. Do we reflect what we are, or do we project something we are not? For instance, do you project the image of a Christian but have never trusted in Christ as Savior? Or, have you accepted Christ as Savior, but you are not now living or acting as a Christian? We tend to be negatively affected to some degree by someone who is homosexual or transgender, yet we make excuses when we try and change who we are Spiritually. We say nonsensical things like “Everyone in church is a hypocrite” or “I just sometimes cannot control myself” or whatever we have to say in order to make ourselves feel better. It can be a struggle, for sure.

          One day we will stand before the Lord. Maybe you believe that, maybe you do not. Whether or not you agree with something does not alter whether or not it is the truth. Some people have taken portions of Scripture out of context and announced that the Word of God is wrong. But taken in context and as a whole, the Scripture has never been seen to be in error. So, one day we will stand before the Lord. “Were you, or were you not, born again?” Not, “did you live a good life,” but are you a believer in the saving power of Jesus? The answer, which you will not be able to lie about, will determine your eternity. If you are a believer, will you receive a “Well done, good and faithful servant?” Or will you just be allowed in?

          I am a long way from perfection. I know that and I work at improving. But what you see in me is what I am. Deep down in the deepest part of your soul, what are you?

          Noelvys was a fifteen year old teenager when she came into our lives when Marsha and I lived in the Miami, Florida area. Hialeah, Florida, to be exact. Just north of Miami. Known throughout the country for the Hialeah Horse Racing Track. And, although very few people outside of Hialeah ever heard of it, Hialeah was home to Sunset Heights Baptist Church. Marsha was the secretary, I was the associate pastor and Noelvys, the fifteen year old mentioned above, was our piano player.

          Her parents had escaped from Cuba to get away from Castro’s socialist utopia before Noelvys was born and they settled in Hialeah, which had a growing Cuban population. Noelvys was something of a musical prodigy and when our piano player fell and broke her shoulder, Noelvys came to the rescue. Our pianist was 78 when she broke her shoulder and she never really healed well, so Noelvys stayed on. She became part of our Youth group and went with Marsha and I on various ministry endeavors. She and Marsha were quite close, but mostly she tolerated me.

          In time she married and had two daughters. While the girls were little, Noelvys’ husband, Ricky, left his wife and daughters behind and went off on a new life. Noelvys had a difficult job ahead, but she was up to the task. Both daughters, Melissa and Brianna, are grown and are making their way in the world. Noelvys has been quite successful, although she wouldn’t think so. Her experiences have shaped her life and although there is a lot of the 15 year old still there, there is also a woman who has a strong edge to her.

          We had been kind of loosely in touch until two years ago when I had my heart surgery. Noelvys is a nurse by training. Her career is based on medical, but what she actually does is beyond that and, to be truthful, even though she has explained it to me, I am not really sure what it is she does. But as a nurse, she was quite concerned about my upcoming surgery. That began a more regular correspondence. Then, she asked me if she could be on our prayer list here at the Yoke. She reads the blogs and prays for the people on the prayer list and she will call and ask questions about some of them and whether the doctor prescribed this or that or whatever. She is really concerned. When Jerry Warnock had his back surgery, you would have thought Noelvys was a family member. She has taken the congregation to heart. She is not the only one. I will talk about that more later. First, though, I want to tell my most recent Noelvys story.

          When Marsha left, Noelvys was shocked and disappointed. This was not the behavior she would have expected out of Marsha. But also, she really doesn’t think I can survive on my own. We communicate often now and she is always asking about my health, if I am eating right, how am I dealing with the stress, am I finding ways to relax…..that sort of thing. A lot of women feel that way about men. Poor lost souls, need a woman to point them in the right direction. So, on the evening of April Fool’s day, I sent Noelvys a text. A question maybe you can answer. I ran out of black pepper about a month ago. Since I am Mr. Cheap, I didn’t get any more. But then last week I ran out of salt, too. So, I went out and bought both pepper and salt and brought them home. My problem is how do I put the salt and pepper into their respective shakers? My mother’s shakers had a hole in the bottom that sealed with a cork, but these do not. I have been trying to pour the salt and pepper in through the little holes at the top, but I am making a mess. Isn’t there an easier way? It was evening, so I knew she was home. She usually responds within a minute. Five minutes went by, and then this; The tops don’t unscrew? What do you mean? Ten minutes go by. The salt and pepper shakers, the tops don’t unscrew? There are no screws in them, so how could they unscrew? Five minutes go by. When you take hold of the top and turn to the left, does the whole top unscrew? Gee, I don’t know. Wait a sec….Hey! They screw right off! Thanks! Fifteen minutes go by. Finally, I text, The preceding was an April Fool’s joke. The response was immediate. OK, good. I was trying to figure out how to contact the blog lady (Mary) to get her to run over there and check to see if you had a stroke.

          That was really very satisfying.

          But it got me to thinking later. She was going to try and contact Mary, a woman she has never met but someone she felt she could trust because she has read her blog heard about her. Noelvys is on my prayer chain because she asked to be on the prayer chain. She reads the blogs (the blog lady’s and the blog guy’s)  because I send out the links. The edition of the prayer chain I put out has all the names on it that Judy and Janene have on theirs, but mine also has a few more because I have added some here and there by request. People who have been prayer partners with me from before and who want to continue to be prayer partners. People praying for people they will never know personally and will never meet in this life, yet praying earnestly anyway.

          And real concern, too. As a person progresses after the prayer need, I tend to forget to send out updates. Everyone hears how they are doing in church. Last week I received a note wondering about the Hann family. I had posted about the adoption that got derailed and then about Chris’ heart cath, but had never updated. This person wanted to know how the family was doing. Like some of the others, they had posted the needs on the prayer chains at their own churches. I may post a request here, but people in Ohio and Florida and Oklahoma and who knows where else are also praying. And that is awesome!

          I sometimes think we do not put enough stock in prayer. I know I send out requests without really thinking about the ones who receive that request outside of the church. But people all over whom it has been my privilege to share prayer time and prayer needs are stopping what they are doing for a bit and lifting people of the Yoke up. I would dearly love to, one day, bring all of those extra prayer chain folks together with those from the Yoke so that our people can say thanks and those people can put faces to the names. It won’t happen here, but some day……Well, there is a song by Eliza Hewitt written in 1898 called, When We All Get to Heaven:

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus
Sing His mercy and His grace
In the mansion's bright and blessed
He'll prepare for us a place!

While we walk the pilgrim pathway
Clouds will over spread the sky
But when travelin' days are over
Not a shadow, not a sign!

Onward to the prize before us
Soon His beauty we'll behold
Soon the Pearly Gates will open
We shall tread the streets of gold!

When we all get to Heaven
What a day of rejoicing that will be
When we all see Jesus
We'll sing and shout the victory

          When that day happens, look me up and I’ll introduce all of you.