{"id":2197,"date":"2018-12-30T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-30T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/?p=2197"},"modified":"2018-12-29T19:32:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-30T00:32:57","slug":"i-really-do-need-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/i-really-do-need-you\/","title":{"rendered":"I Really Do Need You!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"auto\">\n<div class=\"custom-html-block\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/media\/player\/u4rjy-a15b93?from=yiiadmin&amp;download=1&amp;version=1\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/media\/player\/u4rjy-a15b93?from=yiiadmin&amp;download=1&amp;version=1\" height=\"122\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">A surgeon once told me about a strong, self-reliant man, who rarely expressed his emotions outwardly. One night the man had to rush his wife to the hospital for emergency surgery. The operation was successful but the woman\u2019s condition deteriorated. <u>Despite blood transfusions and intensive care, she continued to lose strength<\/u>. <\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The doctor was puzzled, because by all medical standards, she should have been recovering. Finally, the doctor became convinced of the reason for her steady decline. S<u>he was not trying to get well<\/u>. <\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The surgeon was an old family friend, so he went to her bedside and said: <em>\u201cI would think you would want to get well for the sake of your husband.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p>She replied weakly, <em>\u201c<u>My husband is strong, he doesn\u2019t need anybod<\/u>y.\u201d<\/em> The doctor called the husband to his office and told him what his wife had said. <\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">He went immediately to his wife\u2019s hospital room, took her hand in his and said, <em>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to get well!\u201d<\/em> Without opening her eyes, she asked, <strong><em>\u201c<u>Why<\/u>?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He replied, <strong>\u201cBecause I need you!\u201d<\/strong> <u>At this point, the nurse who was monitoring the blood transfusion said she noticed an immediate change in the woman\u2019s pulse rate<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Then she opened her eyes and said, <strong>\u201c<u>That\u2019s the first time you ever said that to me<\/u>!\u201d<\/strong> Two weeks later she was home and recovering. The doctor said later that it wasn\u2019t merely the blood transfusion, but her husband\u2019s words that made the difference. <u>He declared his need for her<\/u>. <strong><em><u>That she was important to someone she loved made all the difference between life and death<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On this Feast of the Holy Family, you and I need to realize this \u2013 how much we truly need the ones we love. <strong><em><u>And most especially we need to tell them this and not on their death beds<\/u>.<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">In today\u2019s Gospel, Jesus is a typical 12-year old. He\u2019s already spreading his wings, remaining behind in Jerusalem, and not telling Mary and Joseph. When they finally find him in the temple, Mary asks him, <em>\u201c<u>Son<\/u>, <u>why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety<\/u>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Jesus replied, \u201c<u>Do you know know that I must be in my Father\u2019s house<\/u>?\u201d No doubt Mary was thinking, <em>\u201c<u>How about our house<\/u>?\u201d <br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The Gospel says that Jesus went with them to Nazareth and he was obedient to them for the next 20 years. After stating his case about his Father in heaven\u2019s house, he showed how much he needed Mary and Joseph. So he went home and lived out his love for them for 20 years. <\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Christmas is the best time for us to <strong><em>\u201ccome home\u201d<\/em><\/strong> to take off our <em>\u201cJohn Wayne masks\u201d<\/em> like the husband in the story did. To take off our <em>\u201cI\u2019ve go so much work to do masks\u201d<\/em> and <strong><em>let the real person appear. <\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure there are some women here who have kept the family together emotionally and physically, <em>but who have felt utterly taken for granted, like an unpaid servant.<\/em> There are some men and women here <em>who have worked so hard to raise their families, putting in long hours, sacrificing their own wants and pleasures so their kids could go to a good school, but are taken for granted.<\/em> I\u2019m sure there are loyal workers here, who are at work every day, taking no phony sick days, giving their time and energy over and above what is required, <em>and are taken for granted.<\/em> <br \/><strong><br \/>This Christmas Season is such a good time to say the words that count. Whenever I hear caring words, then I know that I count. And I want to count! I need to count! I\u2019m not an insect among several other million insects \u2013 here today and stepped on tomorrow. <br \/><\/strong><br \/><em>I and everyone here was born for a reason \u2013 to love and to be loved. <strong>We must not just do it&#8230;.We must also say it.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>John and Mary Ceil are a couple I used to do retreats with.<\/strong> One day at work John had to sneeze. So he grabbed the handkerchief in his back pocket. But before he put it back, he unfolded it and saw how clean, how starched and how well-ironed it was. <em>For over 30 years Mary Ceil had been cleaning his icky handkerchiefs, starching, and ironing them to perfection.<\/em> <br \/><u><br \/>It dawned on him that he had never once ever thanked her<\/u>. On the way home he bought a rose and a nice box of candy. <strong><em>John hugged her and thanked her for her special, unnoticed task that she had so lovingly done for all those years!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; A surgeon once told me about a strong, self-reliant man, who rarely expressed his emotions outwardly. One night the man had to rush his wife to the hospital for emergency surgery. The operation was successful but the woman\u2019s condition deteriorated. Despite blood transfusions and intensive care, she continued to lose strength. The doctor was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"ocean-thumb-m":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"ocean-thumb-ml":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"ocean-thumb-l":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",150,150,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured.png",100,100,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1543804340_featured-45x45.png",45,45,true]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Medard Laz","author_link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/author\/medlaz\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/category\/weekly-messages\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Weekly Messages<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"&nbsp; A surgeon once told me about a strong, self-reliant man, who rarely expressed his emotions outwardly. One night the man had to rush his wife to the hospital for emergency surgery. The operation was successful but the woman\u2019s condition deteriorated. Despite blood transfusions and intensive care, she continued to lose strength. The doctor was&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}