February 27, 2012
Times of Distress
My mother is in a nursing home and one of the fellow clients is a
cantankerous elderly gent who appears to have some dementia. The resident bully
has gotten physical with some of the patients so I purchased a sports whistle
for mom to wear around her neck. I decided a shrill whistle would either bring
help quickly, or at the very least it might scare the beggar away. I’m now
thinking about my own spiritual whistle of choice and what I use in times of
distress. I know many of us follow in Peter’s sinking footsteps and cry out, “Lord, save me!” (Matt 14:30 NIV)
However, I’m wondering if we might be better served by remembering how Jesus
responded in times of distress and being bullied, “It is written…”
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I suppose a darned good right hook to the chops is out of the question for K1-12 and nursing homes, too. Maybe if our school authorities would spend enough time with the children to know who are the bullies and who are the defenders, they would know who to punish for a solid connection to the jaw, and who not to punish. Eventually we would have fewer bullies to deal with. But as long as the government has to do everything for us, including protecting us, throw a punch yourself and you’re taking the law into your own hands. Oh no, no, no, we don’t defend ourselves. We blow whistles, and cry for teachers, and call 911, and hope that somebody gets there before the bully gets done. But actually, for the nursing home situation, I agree with you. The whistle is major important because a good right hook could lead to a life ending injury. It is a playground with a different set of risks.
-----Fortunately, the rest of us are not playing on it. Yet. We are still out here in the mile-a-minute, mobile, make-your-head spin world where things come at you from any angle at any time. I tried the “cry out for God” strategy and found it sorely missing. You bet I still cry out to Him. But I don’t ask Him to fix my stuff anymore, unless, of course, He might have some purpose in performing a tiny little miracle just for me (please, please.) I ask for strength of character and information at the right time and calmness of mind and things like that to either know how to fix my own problems or who to go to for some help (affordable help, hopefully.) And there’s a lot of things involved in being responsible for your own stuff, like learning soon enough that you’ve got a situation rising so you can deal with it. So a person needs God’s help drastically. But it is surprising how much of His help merely raises our own abilities high enough up the bar for us to deal with stuff ourselves. But still, there is a bar. And there is stuff beyond its height.
-----Hope is a wonderful thing. It keeps us going. But adjustment is often what’s necessary, because many hopes go unfulfilled. If you're left hoping when you should be adjusting, you might become the next train wreck. You sometimes see babies or other very young loved one’s facing end of life situations with forests of prayers rising around them. Yet they die. My Uncle went from seriously devout with-a-radio-program Christian to abject atheist at the death of his nine-year old son. You know it happens all the time when you consider the less serious situations too. But we must see now like we know we will see in the end: everything works for God’s purposes, and His purposes are involved entirely with love and His beloved. We must hope with a readiness to adjust. It is a part of the "Your kinfdom come, Your will be done" thing. If you’ve ever seen a radish seed, you know some seeds are ugly. Everything which occurs in this life is in a way the seed of some aspect of the eternal bliss He‘s preparing. It can be ugly when planted in the temporal mix of His purposes, but it can garnish a great salad in the mix of His eternal objectives. The whistle you blow may lead you to personal change.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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