God's Humor?

Does God have a sense of humor? Tonight the Ryans had a lovely dinner
with us, after a very long day, we were able to finally relax and eat
a great meal and hear a bit more of their story. We still have the
sense of unreality, that these people who are so important could be
sitting in OUR house in Bundibugyo. Anyway after dinner, tea,
conversation, fellowship, with the theme turning to us, to avoiding
burn-out, to setting boundaries, to the kind of things that
spiritually sensitive and directive people in our lives need to say.
Scott talked a bit about the long day the day before, and the
frustration of coming home late to find yet one more person with an
ear-ache waiting in the yard for care and his irritation with the
person. I talked about saying no, how hard it is, how this very day I
told a Christ School girl who walked into the ward to see me that
she'd have to come back tomorrow because I was overwhelmed with other
patients, only to come home late and find a message that she was worse
and in a lot of pain. But in both cases we did sense a limit, a human
inability to rescue, a need to say sorry but we can't manage
today . . . We talked about our kids and our team and the things going
on in life in general, until about 10:30, all of us were tired, they
graciously bowed out, and we prepared to quickly clean up and get some
rest.

Ha. Not five minutes after our whole conversation on setting limits,
a neighbor from up the road appeared in the darkness as our dog went
wild with barking. There in our driveway was a scene from the Rwandan
genocide, a young man swooning from blood loss, his scalp tied with a
rag soaked in blood which dripped down his soaked shirt. His cousin-
brother had attacked him with a panga, the local machete-like tools
that killed most of the victims in 1994. Scott put him into our truck
and is still at the hospital now as I write, presumably suturing the
wounds to stop the bleeding.

Not sure what God is saying in this evening's juxtaposition of great
counsel and bloody reality. Perhaps that we should listen to wisdom
but that we can't expect to confine life to the limits of our boxes?
Or that serious rest requires serious regular removals from the range
of panga-wielding feuds? Or to keep a sense of humor in the craziness
of it all? Easier said than done, I'm afraid, especially for Scott who
is actually mucking it out in the darkness tonight.