Slow to Anger

My verse of the week, maybe of the year: be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath (James 1:19). How? By leaning on the righteousness of God at work in this world, not having to fix it myself. Here are some glimpses of a few things set right. Makuni went home today. He was hospitalized for two months, and slowly but surely a little boy emerged from the swollen scabby pile of pitifulness that I found sitting on his dad’s lap on the floor the first day. He smiled at the piece of candy he unwrapped and bounced his green ball from Pamela while we sorted out his TB therapy and vitamins and supplemental milk for going back to Congo (see the before and after pictures above). Here is another: Kabajungu Margaret after 8 courses of chemotherapy, wholesome and smiling, and we hope cancer-free (yet to be seen). And yet one more: Asta, a baby with malaria parasites too numerous to count, nearly dead from anemia, her articulate father pressing me to do something and my heart plunging towards wrath at the whole tottering medical system (both Nyahuka and Bundibugyo Blood Banks empty, and the man in Fort Portal telling me he could not send any for two days). Then we broke Uganda government policy and collected blood from her mother and transfused her. Today she is much better. Little steps towards putting the world right. I’m grateful for the resources (milk, transport money, malaria medicine, the blood typing and anticoagulant bag) all made possible by sacrificial giving. Thankful that many others are swift to listen to the needs of children in Africa, and swift to respond. But I need prayer, feeling the edginess of grief so close to the surface, feeling the wrath rising up so quickly, these small battles turning on so slim a margin. Prayer to be a listener and a lover.