What to Do with the Wounds

Call it News of the Bizarre:

Man admits involvement in conspiracy to slash wife

(Dayton, Ohio) -- An Ohio man has been implicated in a bizarre conspiracy to hire a woman to assault his wife with a knife. According to hospital records, the man, who has no previous criminal record, drove his wife of more than thirty years to an early morning rendezvous, where he delivered her into the hands of Deborah Millett, who over a period of one hour inflicted such serious injuries to the victim that she had to be hospitalized for three days. Questioned about his motives, the man said only that he believed that the attack would be good for his wife. He also admitted that he had never met Millett before that morning and that he had arranged for her to be paid thousands of dollars in exchange for what he called "her services."

The husband visited his wife several times during her hospital stay but never expressed regret for his involvement in the plan. More than six weeks after the assault the victim’s wounds have healed, but doctors say for the next several months she will continue to struggle with fatigue from the severe trauma to her body, even after her wounds have healed. Neither the police nor hospital officials are expected to investigate the attack because Dr. Deborah Millett performed the surgery at Miami General Hospital.


I am happy to report that my wife is doing fine after her surgery.

Yes, I was that man. I drove my dear wife of thirty years to an early morning appointment with a surgeon wielding a sharp knife and arranged for that surgeon to be paid thousands of dollars, all in hopes of my wife's gaining the kind of health and well-being that could be achieved only by going through that ordeal.

I heard a pastor friend once say that surgery is different from most other kinds of medical care. Usually people come out of the hospital feeling better than when they went in. Not so, usually, with surgery. A surgeon wounds to heal, and the patient leaving the hospital often feels worse after the treatment.

It seems odd to me that when we talk about unjust suffering and evil in the world, when we wonder how such suffering and evil could exist in a world created by a wise and good God, it seems odd that we are so quick to excuse God's involvement in that suffering, as if we need somehow to distance Him from the process. God "allows" evil and suffering, we say; He could never actually cause it Himself.

Yet we don't say the surgeon "allows" the cutting of the flesh; the surgeon actually wounds the patient. And we accept without question not only the suffering the surgeon inflicts but also the surgeon's active role in inflicting that pain.

What I learned from my wife's surgery is that if I can trust a highly skilled doctor to wound my wife, I can trust a wise and loving God to inflict (not just "allow") pain in my life. I can give Him permission to hurt me only because I know He's really smart and He really loves me and my loved ones and He will inflict only as much suffering as is necessary to accomplish His purposes, which are always wise and good. I don't need to question or defend His role in that suffering.

He actually does wound us, but He wounds only to heal.