Hurting

My good friend Deb Sheely sent this to me recently; it very much ministered to me.

I Hurt 

by Bart Breen

Sometimes the most difficult thing I can say is just, "I hurt."

I would much rather tell a long involved story explaining why I hurt, why I deserve to hurt, why my hurt is complex and profound and why my hurt is a part of what makes me a special and unique person.

Yet, the more I build up around my past to explain why I hurt, the longer I prolong my healing and make it a long drawn out process instead of just admitting that I hurt, that it doesn't matter why and go through the feelings and toward leaving that hurt behind in favor of being able to live in the moment and look forward to the future with a measure of hope and joy.

When I can just say, "I hurt" to myself and to others and then feel the pain and accept the help and care that is around me, then I can simplify my life, remove the artificial complications and enter into communion with fellow human beings whose story may be different but they hurt too. Even pain can be a blessing when I learn I can share it in this way.

Big 12 Champs! Harlem Shake Time!

This year, my alma mater, the University of Kansas (KU), had to share the Big 12 regular season crown with their in-state rivals Kansas State University (KSU). Both programs finished the conference season with 14-4 records. Forget the fact that KU had beaten KSU twice during the regular season and forget the fact that KU has won at least a share of the Big 12 regular season title for nine straight seasons, while KSU had not won a conference title in 36 years. Forget the fact that KU is 39-3 versus KSU in the last 42 games played. At the end of the day, KU wanted to prove without a doubt that it was the better team, and they did it with a 16 pt. win in the Big 12 conference tournament defeating KSU for the third time this season: Big 12 Champs!


It's good to be a Jayhawk fan!


Just to celebrate a little, here's KU's "Harlem Shake" video. The guy in the center of the picture above as well as wearing the chicken head in the video below is KU's star player Ben McLemore who is projected to be the #1 or #2 player taken in the NBA draft this year. USA Today ran an article about McLemore's poverty-stricken background and his desire one day to buy a house for his mom. As McLemore says closing out the article, "A lot of people don't have a house. My mom is proud of me. I just want to keep working hard so one day I can help my family. I am going to get a big house one day and we all can stay in it and eat." For people like me (Mike Hsu) who have always had provided the basic necessities of life, I often take for granted the blessings of the "ordinary" daily provisions of God. What a noble desire for a young man to so deeply desire to provide food and shelter for his loved ones. McLemore Article

A Typical Day of Clinic in Haiti

At Grace Chapel, we've been sending medical teams to Haiti since 2006. Last week, we had a team of 30 serving in central Haiti; here was one of their clinic days. On second thought, I say it is a "typical" day, but watching the video, it looks like a bit more of a low-key day than most clinic days in Haiti. Many of the days can be intense and pressure-filled as our teams are limited as to how many patients they can see on any given day, and the sheer demand of the number of people wanting to see a healthcare provider is often great.