Finding Strength and Joy in God's Vision

The state-run convalescent hospital was not a pleasant place tom wrote it is large understaffed overfilled with senile and helpless and lonely people who are waiting to die on the brightest of days it seems dark inside and smells of sickness and stale urine i went there once or twice a week for four years but i never wanted to go there and i always left with a sense of relief it's not the kind of place one gets used to. [00:01:05]

I also learned later that this woman was 89 years old and she had been there bedridden blind nearly deaf and alone for 25 years this was mabel i don't know why i spoke to her she looked less likely to respond than most of the people i saw in that hallway but i put a flower to hand and i said here's a flower for you happy mother's day. [00:02:34]

Mabel and i became friends over the next few weeks and i went to see her once or twice a week for the next three years her first words were usually an offer of hard candy from a tissue box near her bed some days i would read to her from the bible and often when i would pause she would continue reciting the passage from memory word for word. [00:04:20]

On other days i would take a book of hymns and sing with her and she would know all the words of the old songs for mabel these were not merely an exercise in memory she'd often stop and meet him and make a brief comment about lyrics she considered particularly relevant to her situation. [00:04:45]

During one hectic week of final exams i was frustrated because my mind seemed to be pulled in ten directions at once with all the things i had to think about and the question occurred to me what does mabel have to think about day after day week after week not even able to know if it's day or night. [00:05:23]

I think about my jesus i sat there and i thought for a moment about the difficulty for me of thinking about jesus for even five minutes and i said what do you think about jesus she replied slowly and deliberately as i wrote i think about how good he's been to me he's been awfully good to me in my life you know. [00:05:48]

I would rather have jesus he is all the world to me and then she began to sing and old him jesus says all the world to me my life my joy my all he is my strength from day to day without him i would fall when i am sad to him i go no other one can cheer me so when i'm sad he makes me glad he's my friend. [00:06:30]

How could she do it seconds ticked and minutes crawled and so did days and weeks and months and years of pain without human company and without an explanation of why it was all happening and she lay there and sang hymns how could she do it the reason i think is that mabel had power. [00:07:08]

Lying there in that bed unable to move unable to see unable to hear unable to talk to anyone she had something that you and i don't have much of she had an incredible power here was an ordinary human being who received supernatural power to do extraordinary things her entire life consisted of following jesus as best she could in her situation. [00:07:29]

Imagine being in her condition and saying i think about how good he's been to me he's been awfully good to me you know see this is psalm 23 come to life this is the vision yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil. [00:08:14]

What is the vision that you have for your life it must be about something and that something must be about more than just climbing a ladder accumulating stuff must be something so strong that if you have to spend 25 years in pain and solitude with no explanation it will give you the power to endure. [00:09:17]

This is life in the kingdom of god this is the vision of jesus god would you help make his vision a reality in our lives would you make that power come once again to ordinary people like us help us remember mabel and her friend jesus today. [00:09:39]