Imagine with me for a minute. You grew up with a family, sort of. Do they love you? That's questionable. Friends? Well, not much to brag about in that area of your life. Job? No. You used to work but cannot anymore because a sitting job is no longer an option due to health considerations and pain. A job on your feet is really not an option, again due to health issues. You are in a hospital. You might want to stay because the next step is a mental institution. You are plagued by both acute pain from your last surgery and chronic pain from every thing else. Can you enjoy the outdoors for a little spirit lift? Not really because of a few reasons that may or may not be ligitamate. Do you believe in a God? No. You gave up on Him a long time ago after having a wreck on the way to church. Purpose in life? Riding out the pain. Or, maybe not. Suicide sometimes sounds like the best option. You've tried before. You have a better plan to try again, but all of these little happy healthcare people say, "No, no! You might die! We can't let that happen or we have failed in our jobs! Don't you want to live?"
How young and naive I must appear to the eyes in that bed looking up at me! How far removed our realities are from each other! Can I give purpose? No. Can I impart health? No. Can I understand? No. Can I show that I care? Yes. Can I share Christ and the hope I have in Him? Yes. Will that make a difference?
Standing at the bedside, I think of several things. One is a quote by G.K. Chesterton: "How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it; if you could really look at other men with common curiosity and pleasure." Then I remember great people who, in spite of the physical difficulties they faced, looked beyond themselves. Hellen Keller, Joni Erikson Tada, Fanny Crosby, and the list could go on and on. As long as you are concious and able to communicate, there is someone out there to reach out to...someone with like struggles, someone that wants to learn what you know, someone to benefit from your willingness to rise above the circumstances. That someone may even be your doctor, nurse, or social worker. As long as God imparts life, He has purpose. He wants to reach into your heart and fill it until it runs over and over and over into the lives around you!
Do I struggle with purpose? Yes! Even as recent as yesterday and today! Think about this.
What purpose would YOU have if:
1. You have no job.
2. You have no family support.
3. You have no friends to speak of.
4. You cannot do the things you always enjoyed.
5. You are in chronic pain with break through acute pain.
Do YOU have PURPOSE outside of these things? Did you live today as though you do?
Without the Way there is no going; without the Truth there is no knowing; without the Life there is no living. ~Thomas A Kempis
3 comments:
I recently heard quote that went something like this.
“Don’t just give them reasons not to take their lives; give them a reason to live.”
It seems that so often in our training we are educated on how to divert a client from suicide but there is an absence of true purpose in the message. I know that we would agree that there is only one thing that can give your Pt purpose in life…an understanding of his creator and the development of a relationship with him. Right now he needs a light to guide him there. I’m sure that your loving presence at his bedside is the strongest testimony of Christ’s love that he’s seen in a long time. Naive in his eyes, maybe; an angel of mercy that he’ll never forget, I guarantee it! I’m glad you got to share with him!
Thanks, Daniel! Your comments always have a way of encouraging me! I just pray that God will send someone to my patient at the mental hospital to show Christ to him again.
A preacher/physician that I heard speak last year said that he makes it a point to either pray with or for each of his patients. I fall so short of that, but I want to start lifting more of my patients up in prayer to the only One who can truely minister to their needs.
Thought provoking. Thanks Amy.
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