Finding significance at the second hand store ...
It was around 12:00 noon and even though I was in town to visit people,
I didn’t want to show up uninvited at someone’s door while they were eating. So
I decided to go in a second hand store retail business for a short time. I was browsing in
the store when the owner struck up a conversation with me. I eventually put my
items by the register and she checked me out. We talked for a while afterwards and it came out that I was a pastor.
“So, you’re a pastor,” the woman pried a bit in an awkward manner, “Is
it wrong to decide for someone whether they should live or die?” I was unsure about
what exactly she was asking and so I inquired as to the situation. She was
uneasy in her asking and I had no idea of the direction of the conversation or
how I would answer such a difficult question. My short browsing time was
changing before my eyes as she began to tear up and as the emotion began to
come forth.
“I’m struggling with all they are putting on me,” she exhaled in voice
and desperation. “I don’t know what to do,” she further explained. As I listened,
compassion started filling my heart, the extra time I had to fill just a few minutes before was
now lost in this woman’s story. Her husband had severe dementia among multiple
health problems and she had been asked to decide about “end of life decisions” for her
husband. She was
obviously unsure and desperate about how to decide.
I asked gently about her feelings and when and what exactly did she
have to decide? Minutes could now be measured in units of tens as I journeyed along the
events of her life and the placement of her husband in a nursing home because she
could not take care of him. I reassured her that although the law allows decisions to made
on “end of life” directives that she didn’t have to decide right now. I looked into her
eyes and spoke about the fact that these decisions were immensely difficult for anyone and
the overwhelming anxiety that she was feeling was quite normal. I asked her if she was a
believer and she nodded. I reached out my hand and asked if I could pray with her about
her husband and the momentous decisions she faced. I cannot remember the words that I
prayed other than the context and my sincere pleading that our God come and comfort her
with the peace that only He can give. No words came out after the prayer except a
simple “thank you” even as hardly noticeable flow of tears was coming from the corners of
her eyes. I left and stepped into the sunshine.
As I made my way to my car, I was completely overwhelmed with God’s
timing in our lives. How does something like this come about? What started as
insignificant time had before my eyes been transformed into another “calling upon God”
powerful and significant moment in time in my life. As I sat for a few seconds in my car, debating
where I should go next,I became completely enveloped in the incomprehensible reality that I
worship a living God. He is not only a God that directs our paths but uses us to show His
compassionate love to others on those very same paths we are walking. Incredible simply
incredible.
