April 26, 2021 (Monday)
This is the ninth of nine blogs on “Personal Problems in Life: Feelings of Anxiety, Loneliness, Depression, Anger, Guilt, Inferiority, Grief, Hostility, and Feelings Associated with Sickness.”
There is probably no subject that can be discovered in as many forms as what we call, “sickness,” or “illness.” Just as there are many different kinds of illnesses, there are also differing degrees of seriousness and a wide variety of pain and/or discomfort as well as disability experienced by patients. Some illnesses are periodic; they come and go. Others come to stay and never go away. I suppose this subject is so huge that we would need to focus on each individual case in order to understand their experience of illness.
When sickness is serious, we are likely to experience all the emotions characterized in this small series of blogs about personal problems in life, which might better be called personal feelings in life. We go through almost every feeling in the book when we are very sick for a long time and/or when the pain associated with that illness is constant and severe.
When I was growing up, we went to the doctor only in dire emergencies. We rarely took medicine. When I got sick, I was always given Chocolate Quinine. Ugh! It came in a small square amber-colored bottle. Most doctors were general practitioners and would come to the home if called. When I was pastor at Oletha, in Central Texas, where Wanda was born and raised, there had been one doctor, Doctor Jones, who traveled from house to house, all of them quite a distance from each other, treating illnesses and delivering babies. He was no longer living when I became pastor of the church there, but everyone still fondly remembered him. He owned the first automobile in that part of the state, and negotiated mud and clay and sand, steering with a stick instead of a wheel. He delivered Wanda into the world. In our little village of Houston, our doctor was Dr. Brian, who also delivered many of our family members. Probably me. His son-in-law, Dr. Lester Collins, became a well-known leader among Baptists.
But the situation has changed. There are many specialists, Medicare, Insurance, primary care physicians, and plenty of rules and regulations. There are also many types of complex technological equipment of all kinds that do a better job but are more expensive both for the providers and the patients.
Because of Covid, hospitals are at full or near-full capacity and strict rules of visitation make it very difficult to get into a patient’s room to visit. That will eventually loosen up and when it does, everyone who visits patients needs to remember that the person they are visiting is not well and visits should be handled accordingly. After the patient goes home, many church folks will remember them, as they do now, and take meals to them and their families. And that’s a good thing.
Generally speaking, when we visit the sick, we should train ourselves to be very aware of their condition, and take care in our visit to help, not harm. There is no set rule. It depends on many things. Try to find out as much as you can as you determine how long you will stay and what you will talk about. Remember, at least for a while, most recovering patients need rest.
What we Christians need to remember, especially if the sick person is a member of the church, is that our congregation is a family. We love each other and seek to help each other through the pitfalls of life.
For some unknown reason, we always want to hear the diagnosis when one of our Christian brothers or sisters gets sick. We really do not need to know all the details. Perhaps we should have some idea of the seriousness of the situation, but what we really need to know is that someone we love is sick, and we need to try to help in some way. That does not necessarily mean recommending a doctor or a medicine or a type of treatment. It means to show up and show that we care, that we are praying, that we are quite willing to do something to help.
Every church where I have served has a prayer list. For years now, those lists have filled much more than one page. In some churches, time is taken to pray for the sick by name. Whether a church chooses to do that or something else, the main thing is to let the unwell person know that his/her church family cares and is praying.
It seems that no matter what the subject is, when we are talking about a church family or those for whom the church is praying, it all comes back to loving God and each other, leading others to become a part of the family by accepting Christ as Lord and Savior. That’s our overriding mission in this world, as individuals and as congregations.
I have not discussed sicknesses and how we deal with them when they hit us personally. If you and your family are like me and mine, you have had enough illness to learn a lot about it all. I think our guidance is Paul’s experience when he was sick and God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” When you become ill, go to the doctor, follow his advice, take the medicine and/or undergo the procedures he prescribes, pray and trust the Lord. You will find His grace completely sufficient in all circumstances.
THROUGH IT ALL
Andrae Crouch
I’ve had many tears and sorrows,
I’ve had questions for tomorrow,
there’s been times I didn’t know right from wrong.
But in every situation,
God gave me blessed consolation,
that my trials come to only make me strong.
Through it all,
through it all,
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus,
I’ve learned to trust in God.
Through it all,
through it all,
I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.
I’ve been to lots of places,
I’ve seen a lot of faces,
there’s been times I felt so all alone.
But in my lonely hours,
yes, those precious lonely hours,
Jesus lets me know that I was His own.
Through it all,
through it all,
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus,
I’ve learned to trust in God.
Through it all,
through it all,
I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.
I thank God for the mountains,
and I thank Him for the valleys,
I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.
For if I’d never had a problem,
I wouldn’t know that he could solve them,
I’d never know what faith in God could do.
Through it all,
through it all,
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus,
I’ve learned to trust in God.
Through it all,
through it all,
I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.