Saturday, January 20, 2018

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.        1 Timothy 6:11
 
         In the physical therapy room, the fifty-ish woman lying on the table next to mine was in pain.  Thin and frail looking, she was struggling to do an exercise by lifting a bar-weight.  Sitting in a chair next to her was her son, probably in his twenties.  He was focused on his smart-phone, his thumbs flying swiftly over its keys as he played a video game.  “Take this weight, please,” his mother said to him, in shallow breaths.  The son didn’t move.  “Please,” she said again, with urgency in her voice.  “In a minute,” he replied, not taking his eyes off the smart-phone.  I began to get off my table, not sure what I’d do first—help her or smack him – when the therapist came over to assist her.  How simple can it be?  When someone says “Help me,” we have to stop texting or making pieces of candy fall down in a video game. 

        How hard is that to understand?  For some, it seems, it isn’t clear at all.  “Lord, may I never be deaf to someone’s cries; may I always hear when someone says ‘Help me,’ and then respond swiftly.  Help me to ‘pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.’”
​©Carol Dean Henn, 2018