The Soul That Waits
Posted: Monday, April 20, 2009
by Jean Purcell
OpineBooks.com
Many souls are waiting upon the Lord for the time that He has in His hand. Older and younger men and women are in usual circumstances of illness or injury. Blessed, many wait upon the Lord, unknowing or suffering. All are known to God, precious in His eyes, and objects of His loving outreach through people and prayers. He longs to help and to save each soul.
In recent weeks, God has permitted our family to face many tests and has offered us many blessings through being with our dear Helen as she faces worse congestive heart failure. My husband's mother, who lives with us, is now in hospice care in our home. As a result, we identify more than ever with families that have loved ones in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice, and in-home hospice care, like Helen.
These precious souls live either in alertness, twilight, coma, or other conditions. In some ways, to their loved ones they seem much changed. They neither talk, think nor act the same as before, when they had better ealth, when debilitating effects of medicines and encroaching disease did not apply to them.
Now, with our loved one not doing as well as in years before and during recent weeks when we hoped for improvement, I think often of people in nursing homes. I remind myself that many have had lives full to the brim, with families, jobs, church life, and neighborhoods.
I know that if bitterness had taken root, some of them have harder times than those who forgave quickly. This is a big lesson, watching the end of life.
Helen, as far as we know, made peace long ago with everyone. As a pastor's wife, faithful to give, serve, love, and forgive, she met more different situations of life than we can imagine. She was counselor, friend, confidante, and helper to more people than we can count or track.
Many people at the end of life appear so changed that we feel we hardly recognize them. I went through this with my mother, too, as she suffered the effect of Parkinson's Disease and associated medications.
What helped me then and helps us all now is to rely on and remember the basics. These women had great faith in God, quiet faith that showed itself through many simple, fanfare-less acts of love. These women lived active, vital lives in which they grew up, married, raised children, and helped their aging parents.
At the end of life, when a loved one looks and sounds different, when actions no longer fit the person we "once knew," it helps to remember that that person still exists. In our memories and in God's knowledge of them, God allows them to be held, loved, and respected.
At no other time does the dignity of the individual mean more to us. We honor the life gone by. As we go through the shocks and lessons of the end of life, we honor the life that is. Some would say it is "no life," but they know nothing, then, about love.
I love what C. S. Lewis once wrote, which I remember from long ago readings. He emphasized that every person, including those we don't like or admire, is a living soul. He said he had to remind himself of this when he became upset with people or wanted to do what is called "blowing people off." He said he could not do that, because he wanted to honor their souls' potential to be with God and saved by God.
We honor the lives and souls of those now dependent on others. For whatever reasons debilitation has come upon them, even if by their own doing through alcoholism or drugs, for example, everyone needs and deserves to be helped, loved, and cared for.
If you are caring for someone now, or know someone who is, be assured that the responsibility has changes, stages, and many lessons for you. Take it as a gift however difficult to put together and use. As you adjust, things will get better in your mind.
For tired bodies of those who care for others, let us pray for helpers to come inside the home and alongside those responsible. There is no need to worry or despair, for you are not alone. If you believe in God, then you know that He has promised to help us one day at a time. He who knows the infinite future knows every need of the moment, hour, days, and nights.
What from God can we cling to at such times when we see or live with such a one needing special care? All of what God has given us in Christ is for such moments and days as these. May God know that we lean upon Him, for this pleases Him.
He who is faithful to help us will do it. One day, the souls trusting in Him will go to eternal life with God and with Christ the Lord, by the Holy Spirit's help and comforts.
Praise God for every life. Pray for every life not in Christ. Trust that God will never leave us nor forsake us, for this He has promised through His Son, Jesus.
To those who take care: "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ" (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).
To the dear ones in Christ who wait in an altered state: "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning" (Psalm 130: 5, 6).
Amen.
This Article has been viewed 191 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.