About an hour before I needed to be at work, I got a call from my mother informing me of some serious health issues, that given her past history, make her outlook look pretty poor and that this Christmas will likely be our last together. I went to work where I knew I'd be with my second family- a group of women who would have my back when I needed them. I found them compassionate, working to help me so I could be home at Christmas with my mother- even people who picked up on my upset state, although I thought I'd hidden it pretty well. Work was a little chaotic and I dealt with a lot of challenging behavior with my students throughout the evening. I went out with a co-worker afterward and told her about my situation. She wondered at how I even came to work. Of course, I came to work, I said and thought later why we continue on- why we should continue on in the face of tragedy.
In the scripture when people are afflicted with sickness, Jesus overcomes it- driving it out like he drives out demons. Which leads me to believe the sickness that infests our bodies is an evil and I will not allow evil to overcome my life, to prevent me from doing good. If I allowed this evil to stop me from the good I do in my daily life, to turn me into someone angry or someone who stops and gives up, I would let the evil win. All my friends seemed to have a tough time: my roommate was terribly sick and asked me to check to see if she was still alive in the morning, my best friend was in the hospital. I thought just how much evil is at work in the world, how much we rely on our neighbor. There's just too much bad- we've got to make sure we make our own good (with God's help, of course) and carry each other, we've got to carry each other through
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