Life on Hold...Fully Dependent on Health
As I look outside my window into the darkness the noise of traffic begins for the day.
Flyovers give passage to a vehicle or two and the trickle grows.
With the rising of the sun the flow increases to a constant stream.
The day in the city comes to life as commerce commences.
Trucks, buses vans, cars, and vehicles of every description pass,
each driven by a person tasked to carry out their purpose.
Machines are taken to worksites, packages are delivered,
people converge on offices and sales assistants take their place behind counters.
Commuters fill the footpaths as they move toward their workplace.
The traffic noise is pierced by a siren taking a patient to hospital.
A helicopter cuts through the air chopping the sound to land on the hospital roof.
Emergencies are occurring as people move from one place to another.
It is all happening outside our window and will continue unabated,
more apparent and obvious during the day,
but cloaked by the darkness and subdued sounds in the night.
The patient in the hospital and those confined at home or nearby,
remain in their own time warp constricted in their isolation.
Their day is defined by their health as are the activities available to them.
Many medications prescribed are taken, food is eaten according to special diets,
rest consumes minutes and hours even though it is not preferred.
Normal activities are beyond their strength or motivation,
illness has taken away the vibrant life that was once theirs.
Highfliers, rich and famous, popular, or lonely, young, or old,
share in receiving care to which they are unaccustomed.
Contact with the outside world is restricted,
instead, an endless round of appointments is scheduled to discover a diagnosis,
with the hope that healing will come to allow a rich resurgence of life to return.
In the meanwhile,
the battle within their bodies is fought through day and night.
Four hourly checks on their vital signs punctuate their rest.
Sleep may elude them; fatigue may come and go as does the light.
Day’s pass, weeks disappear into months and time goes on its way.
The sick and debilitated have no need for many of life’s accumulations.
Fashionable clothes, tools in the shed, the beautiful home and garden,
and all the collectables from holidays taken and family photographs displayed,
are not so important now.
The real wealth in life is good health,
for without it all else becomes but a memory of what was.
The world shrinks and life is confined to a bed in a room.
Is that all there is for those who have fallen into poor health?
Friends and relatives visit to commiserate and express good wishes.
Sentiments are voiced – ‘Get well soon’, ‘we are thinking of you every day’,
‘You are in good hands; in the best place you could be’.
After a time, they leave to go back to their busy lives.
Others possess a different world view.
They have faith that they do not walk alone through life.
They have faith that God has a plan and a purpose for them.
They have faith that God is with them in good times and bad.
They have faith that God watches over them.
They have faith that through the Spirit’s power they have an awesome future.
They cling to Jesus who is their Hope, sent by God, to bring them life.
They know that God loves them and raises them up.
They are certain that God has shown His love in the actions of Jesus.
They hear their father say, “Behold my beloved Son, whom I sent to seek and to save you”.
They know that they are heirs of heaven and can live courageously empowered by the Spirit.
They have Hope, which is embraced by faith and love,
Hope gives renewed strength to get better and take steps forward.
Hope gives a new vision for the future that all will be well.
Hope is to live daily walking with Jesus.
We ask God to fill us with love, compassion, kindness, happiness, and peace every minute of every day.
We can share goodness with strangers through a smile, a nod, a compliment, a kind comment.
We may be unaware of the difference that it has made to them that day.
We love Jesus through the way we love others.
We forgive and accept forgiveness knowing we all make mistakes,
because that is the love God has for us.
There is nothing that can weaken God’s love for us,
It is love that serves, gives and is outrageous.
It is in that love that God embraces us and will lead us to our eternal home.
We know that at the right time, the time appointed by Him, we will go to be with Him.
Through our life in Christ, we already live in God’s eternal kingdom,
it just hasn’t been fully revealed to us yet.
Neil P. Schiller
Wednesday, 2 June 2021
