Over a year ago, I started out on a
mission that I felt in my heart would bless the most forgotten ones. After 5 years of visiting my dad in the
nursing home, I had made acquaintance with many of the residents, and decided
that I should continue to visit them, to encourage them and cheer their
hearts. What I have discovered after a
year of this, is that the opposite of my “mission” has occurred. They have encouraged me and cheered my
heart!
These people, who are basically
imprisoned by their disabilities and age, have shown me some wonderful
truths. Larry, who turned 90 last week,
walks 4 miles every day, and because he is in the assisted living section,
still drives his car, takes people to church, and when opportunity provides,
helps out others that live there. Doris writes little notes and gives them to
those who pass by, stating that she is a nice friend to them, and puts her room
number down so they can find her later.
Carol, whose lungs and heart are failing, gets in her wheel chair, and
gets out of her room and involved with the resident advocates, helping those
who she doesn’t even know by casting her vote for those who can’t speak for
themselves. Margaret, who has had a debilitating stroke, smiles and offers her
hand to everyone. Johnel, who also had a
very bad stroke, so that he can’t even get out of his room, complains very
little with his surroundings and situation, just waiting on the Lord, or as he
puts it “Just relaxin”. I have to admit that in the
beginning, before actually getting to know these people, that I felt they were
a “mission” field. I have since had my
mind decidedly changed, and realize that I am their mission field.
So what could I possibly find that
would cause me to change my mind about the situation? Or, to make that clear, yours or mine. For it is surely true that we all will go the
“way of the world”, and we only get one chance to ride around the sun. We have to face it, one day we will all end
up either in a nursing home, or stuck at home with little ability to care for
ourselves. And one day, that great
leveler, Death, will come for each of us, unless the Lord comes back first.
These ones are just a sampling of the
people within nursing homes. These are those
who built our country, fought our wars, made lives for themselves and their
communities, and yet they are relegated to simple quarters, and over 90 percent
of them get no visitors. Of course, in
this working world, it is nearly impossible to take time off from our busy
lives to visit, and it could be that some of them alienated their families by
their behavior, however, what I found in visiting these people is this. Each one, at some time had a life. As some of them put it, “I had a home, a car
and a job once.” For most Americans,
these are the simple necessities. For
these people, all those necessities have been stripped from them. They now have a bed, in a room they share
with strangers, with perhaps a few personal items, and nothing else. Their
health is not just on the decline, they are waiting for the end, sometimes even
hoping for it. The ability to care for
themselves and to preserve some form of human dignity, even to the point of
personal care such as toileting, bathing and feeding, has also been stripped
from them. They are what our society
would call, “the cast-offs”.
But they are far more than what they
appear, as I have finally come to understand.
In their world, filled with darkness and hopelessness, they are a
shining light. In the midst of the
suffering, in the pain and the lonely nights, in the endless waiting, they have
a hope. Each of the ones I mentioned
have put their trust in the Lord God, believing every word He has said, knowing
it to be true, and trusting that one day, hopefully sooner than later, they
will be with him.
So how have they changed my mind
about my “mission” field? I find this;
they were once as I am now. Working,
having a car and a place of their own, having families and things to do. They
were once held by the dreams of this world, to succeed in their chosen paths,
to live a long and happy life, and to spend their days in happiness. It never occurred to any of them that they
would end up in a nursing home, abandoned by family and friends, having some
stranger wipe them, feed them, and take care of their every need. They are, to put it bluntly, you and I in the
very near future. And as will happen to
all of us, the unthinkable happened.
They got too old and ill to take care of themselves.
But something greater happened in all
this too. In losing everything, they
found their center, the truth of our hope in Christ. They had always known the Lord, but now they
found He truly is “with them always”.
They found that, in the midst of the suffering, He sustains them, holds
them and loves them. They found the only
true thing in life, that the Lord is their strength, their shield, their
comforter and their friend. And even in
the middle of the suffering, they all found joy!
And thus, I became their mission
field, and they became my mentors and teachers.
There is still so much to learn from them, before they leave this
earthly home for their heavenly one. I
want to know what else they can inspire me to do, what advice they have to
give, and most of all, I want to get a firm grip on the hope that makes them
shine like beacons in the night. Because one day it will be my turn to pass the
torch. I can only hope I will be
anything nearly as wonderful as they are.
Take a moment, listen to the song at the beginning, contemplate your life. You were made for a purpose. Live it to the last drop.
