December 05, 2007
Where You Do Not Want To Go
Over the last few months both my mom and my sister have had health issues which put them in the same nursing home and in the same room. Although they roomed together for only about six weeks, it wasn’t a situation that either had expected or would have wanted. Both seemed to experience an emotional death of sorts. I couldn’t help but think of Jesus’ words to Peter, “I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” (John 21:18 NIV) I wonder how Peter took this bit of news about his impending physical death…probably better than if the Lord had told him he’d be checking into a nursing home.
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Gail;
-----There is really no consolation for your mom and sister in their situation. Some folks can take a nursing home just fine, but others see them as Stalig 14 or worse. Everyone must admit, though, that our nursing homes in America are much better than one can do in many places around the world. But still, that is no consolation, because much of what happens in a nursing home anywhere is called neglect.
-----The world is full of neglect and inhospitable situations. They happen even at home, at work, and around on the streets. Sometimes they happen to us totally by happenstance, sometimes we stumble into them, other times we set ourselves up for them by the very choices we make. But always, when we find ourselves in the inhospitable situations, they are hard to swallow, and they are hard to escape. So we say we just won’t get into those situations. My mom says she will not be subjected to a nursing home. Char says the same. And I hope and pray that neither will be.
-----But we all must hear James say, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.’” (James 3:13-15 NIV) I don’t know all the forces that brings someone into a detestable situation, and I certainly don’t know how much of its doing is by the Lord’s action. But I do know that His will in our lives is found at the outcome of godly and upright responses to the situations in which we have found ourselves. And although it may be worse than no consolation, although it may rise to the level of a poke in the eye, when there is no right movement that can get you out of it, then I believe it pleases the Lord for you to resign to it, unless even being in the situation is doing wrong. Then you have a dilemma, and maybe you will need to do a little tunneling.
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