Back to the psalms. God’s psalms are loaded with the sound of groaning. The psalms speak to our frail human condition. They speak to our groaning! That’s because God knows what we’re like. He knows we groan. He wants to hear our groans. He has compassion on our groans.
The theme for today is: The sound of groaning 1.0.
Psalm 5:1-2. David is in pain. He groans and he cries.
David doesn’t begin praying with “I’m in pain so please fix me.” He prays “Give ear…give attention.” He doesn’t ask for solutions. He wants to be heard. He doesn’t ask for answers. He wants recognition. He wants God to simply be there. The last thing he needs is friends like Job had. He needs that “friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). He needs someone who “gets it” that he’s groaning. He’s lost for words. But he’s not lost for sighs and for groans. He needs someone to share those with. He needs someone who will be OK with that. He needs someone to listen. To really listen. He needs someone to care. To really care. He needs His Saviour. He needs His Redeemer.
So, David exercised his privilege to groan. We’ll exercise this privilege as well. We will utter the sound of groaning. Because God wants us to. He is loving, understanding, and knows our condition. He knows our groans. He feels our groans.
We are running for Zach. Barely at times. The groans are slowing down the pace. But God says, “Keep running!” By God’s grace we’ll run, we’ll groan, fixing our eyes on the one who listens. The one who cares. The one who sticks closer than a brother. Jesus. He knows what it’s like to groan. He will give peace within. He promised it. He’ll do it.
Today’s Updates:
Zach stabilized overnight and his vital signs remained steady throughout the day. Zach still requires medications for blood pressure support, but he’s on lower levels of support than yesterday which is good. Zach is also still sedated and on the ventilator. They attempted to take him off sedation today but his heart rate greatly increased and he had a hard time breathing, so he is back on sedation to allow his body to rest and recover more.
Zach developed a left lung “pneumothorax” (a collection of air outside the lung). The air was compressing his lung so he couldn’t breathe in properly. Once they discovered the pneumothorax, they put in another chest tube which allowed the air to escape. Zach required the ventilator to initiate some of his breaths after the chest tube insertion because he was so worn out after a difficult weekend. At the time of writing this, Zach is initiating all his own breaths on the ventilator again which we are glad to see.
The doctors also had some concern about his kidney function after Zach went into shock yesterday, but his kidneys have improved throughout the day. We thank the Lord for these improvements in Zach’s condition.
Zach has been fasting since Saturday with no food or medications through the PEG tube. They did this because of his vomiting and the excess air found in his stomach, but after two days of draining his gut, Zach is doing much better. They restarted his tube feeds today (slow continuous feeds instead of big feeds at mealtimes). We are glad to see that Zach is tolerating the food well.
The transport coordinator spoke with us today and she told us that Zach needs to be stable and off of blood pressure support medications before we can discuss a transfer to Foothills again. We pray that the Lord will heal Zach, and we praise God for sparing Zach’s life. Thank you for your earnest prayers and support.
“Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.“ (Psalm 5:1-2)
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.” (Hebrews 5:7)
