brokenness and restoration

if you've been reading this blog, you will know that a while back i decided to volunteer at a hospice. its been a wonderful experience and i know its going to be a journey that shapes me. the lady i visit with is precious and we are still in the "getting to know you" stage. i mean, its quite odd showing up at someone's bedside because they are dying.
we found out this week that we were both born on the same day in November! she in 1923, me in 1976. we both felt this odd twisting of "fate" and how we are now in each others lives. i cant fathom what she has seen in all her years as an african american women, before civil rights was even whispered in conversation. and now, here we are together beginning to share our lives. its odd at times, uncomfortable to see people so sick in the nursing home, and more than anything-such a honor just to get to hear her story and her journey.

i am struck each time i step in that nursing home by the brokenness and sickness that is in this world. i took maggie a few weeks ago to meet this lady and having such youth and energy holding my hand made what my eyes were seeing all the more shocking: the longing for death, the longing for youth, sadness and loneliness.

and some of you might not know but i am going back to work! i will be working in the mental health field again. i will be a clinical case manager for folks with "severe and persistent mental illness." thats the technical name for people that are really sick. and just thinking about it makes me ache for those people so that they would be set free from their illness.... but here is the good news that i heard while listening to a sermon online this morning:

"Only Jesus has experienced the complete
abandonment of the Father, and he did so humbly,
soberly and gladly for us, that we might live forever in
the eternal favor of God. Life is short, as short as a breeze that blows through this room. But eternity is perfectly long."

we are not abandoned. this life isnt all there is. we can gladly, and with joy, enter into hardships with others, even into death with others because there is hope!
Everytime i walk into her room, everytime i touch her skin, everytime i sit with someone who is having a hard time-i am pushing back the affects of the fall.
everytime we choose selflessness instead of ourselves, to speak with kindness instead of spite, everytime we choose to think of others before ourselves, to go to ugly places in peoples hearts and speak God's healing words, everytime we create & make something beautiful (whether thats growing basil, painting, or making a child) we are pushing back the affects of the fall. we are reclaiming the earth for God's purposes. we are saying, O death, O death where is your sting? and Goodness and Rightness will win.