I do not know what it feels like to be told you have what could be a terminal illness. I’ve held a sacred space for many people that I love as they walk that path but I know that is not the same thing. It’s a different journey than the sudden loss of Mr. Virgo and his heart attack or my best friend who died after a week with a bad stomach flu. I can’t imagine going through all the testing, the waiting, the dread. The treatments. The…decisions.
Before Harry Morgan played Colonel Potter in M*A*S*H, he filmed an episode where he played Major General Bartford Hamilton Steele, a totally batty two-star general. Upon meeting Father Mulcahy, he shouted “There are no atheists in foxholes!” Which is an aphorism suggesting extreme times of stress or fear can cause one to search for a higher power to help through the episode.
I can attest, from a personal perspective, there is much truth in that. It wasn’t until I was “at the bottom of my barrel” after an ugly nervous breakdown and the subsequent loss of my mother that I finally gave in and handed the reigns over to God. I cannot imagine how I would have gotten through Mr. Virgo’s death without Jesus to carry me through the tall grass.
Serious illness triggers a grief response the same as losing a loved one. Finding your way through the darkness of grief is easier when you carry the Light of God with you. That Light gives you hope…not only in the possibility of healing, but also the hope of something beyond. When I was in Colorado last month staying with my son-in-law’s parents, I learned of a book they were reading called After by Bruce Greyson, MD.
Like most science-backed physicians, Dr. Greyson believed “near death experiences” were a product of wishful thinking or the side effects of a dying brain. Then, as a new physician, he had his own experience with a dying patient that he couldn’t explain. This led him into forty-five years of research into Near Death Experiences at the University of Virginia. My friend Sue told me the book made her feel even more hopeful about what lies beyond death.
I ordered my own copy and have just started reading it. I went through an interesting experience when I was in the Emergency Room after my overdose so I’m looking forward to reading similar stories. I know in my heart that Heaven is real. But maybe…just maybe, God gives us these little glimpses of what is to come. Like standing outside the window of the biggest and best toy store as a kid and looking through a clear spot in the glass then sending us home to tell about what we saw.
Where there is Light, there is always hope. It’s something to hold onto, to treasure, to believe in. To have Faith in. It can get you through the darkest hours. Going through the grief of loss, be it life or health or what have you, the cries and laments from the pain is how we honor what was lost. Using that Light to help you through the darkness is life changing. You WILL come out a different person on the other side. Changed.
The greatest change doesn’t come in your comfort zone. On that you can rely.
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“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.”
Hebrews 11:1 NLT