Consumed by Problems

I was a small-church pastor some years back and I regularly visited an elderly shut in, about whom I'm going to use the word "pathetic."  It's a condescending word, and not one I use lightly.  She was in a truly pitiful condition.

She was severely visually impaired, almost totally blind.  But that wasn't what made her case so sad.

What made her pathetic was that she was absolutely consumed by her blindness.  It was all she wanted to talk about, all she wanted to pray about, the only thing on her mind.  How unjust God was for making her blind, how hard it was to do anything because she was blind, how fortunate people were who weren't blind, how much time and effort she spent trying to get doctors to help her alleviate in some way her blindness.

I don't mean to belittle her impairment--I treasure my eyesight and consider myself very blessed to be able to see to take care of myself and enjoy the beauties of the world.  But there are lots of other people much worse off than she was who are having a much more enjoyable life.  She was in a comfortable assisted living facility with a husband who loved her and took care of her, she had a roof over her head and three meals a day, she had people to talk to and activities she could have participated in and all the music and radio access she could possibly have wanted.  Other than the eyesight her health was reasonably good--she was mobile, had a good appetite, and decent strength and endurance.  She had a lot to be thankful for.

I would even have been happy to have her as an active part of our church's prayer ministry, and on more than one occasion I tried to direct her attention to some need in the church or community that I would have appreciated her praying about.

She would have none of it.  Her vision problems dominated the conversation, and she would talk about nothing else.  I grew weary of visiting her, because I knew the visits would be a litany of complaints about one subject.  I would make efforts to redirect the conversation, even directly (and hopefully lovingly) rebuking her a few times for her attitude, but to no avail.  She was miserable and determined to stay miserable.

I would always end the visit asking how I could pray for her, and the answer was always the same, to pray that God might restore her vision.

Sad, very, very sad. 

Ah, well.

Hope all's going okay out there, friends, and God bless.