Sometimes You Do Everything Right

My father is a very healthy man.  He eats right, exercises regularly, and keeps close tabs on his blood pressure and cholesterol.  Partly because he is a physician and knows the consequences of neglecting one's body, and partly because of his family history of heart problems that put him at high risk.  He does everything in the book to take care of himself.  He told me very recently that he had a few routine checkups; everything looked good, including his cholesterol levels.

And yet he still suffered a heart attack yesterday.

Thank God, he caught it early and was treated before the muscle was permanently damaged.  He is feeling good and will spend the next few days in the hospital for monitoring before being released and assuming his regular lifestyle.  Modern medicine is amazing.  I often stop to think about how dramatically different life would be without it.  My husband wouldn't have survived childhood.  My dad would be gone.  My son would be blind.  My husband said yesterday there should be a blessing for living in such times of wealth and health as the world has never seen before.

I remember people saying that they were afraid to come to Israel because of the risk of being caught in a terror attack.  I guess having every attack blasted across the news manages to drown out the minor fact that even in the worst days of the Intifada, one was at a significantly higher risk of dying from an accident in the comfort of their own cars.  In any case, I think my father's story comes as one example of the fact that we are not in charge.  We can--and should!--do everything in our power to keep ourselves safe, but things can still happen.  Part of the problem with the control attitude is that we tend to blame ourselves--and others--when things go wrong.  We need to remember that sometimes things just happen.  God is in charge and He knows what He's doing, even if we don't.  We have to keep our faith that it's for the best, even if we can't see how.




posted in prayer for the full recovery of my father, לרפואת אבי ומורי ר' זהבי יהודה לייב בן ברכה שיחיה