Sickness brings out the best and the worst in all of us. We live in the real world and the reality of illness is a given. We have to deal with it. Most of the time, sickness is recoverable. You know… coughs, colds and the occasional projectile vomit. It’s part of growing up. It’s a right of passage for parents and for their kids. We’ll talk in another blog about the funny stories, the compassion moments when you’re kids are working through the yucks. But let’s go deeper for a moment.
So how do you deal with unrecoverable sickness?
It happens in all families eventually… hopefully at a ripe old age. But inevitably you will know someone or your kids will go to school with someone who’s sick, real sick. Maybe they have a faith and maybe they don’t. There’s no easy answers. In fact, there may be no answers… 3at least ones that would make sense to us at the time. Sure this might be a learning time for everyone, but that doesn’t bring much comfort or understanding does it?
What do you tell your kids? What do you tell yourself? Here’s the standard answer answer. This is what life is… a combination of good and bad. Bad things happen to good people. Look at life with an eternal perspective. That may not completely satisfy, but it is true. So what do you do? What do you say to your kids?
You cry.
If you want to know how to deal with unrecoverable sickness, consider what Jesus did when his friend Lazarus died.
You pray.
Jesus did on numerous occasions.
You hang with those who are suffering.
Jesus did.
Recently I watched a Disney movie, “Inside Out,” with some of my grandkids. Great flick by the way. But the message from the movie was simple. A balanced life is a combination of all of our emotions, not just one or two. The movie becomes the springboard to a conversation about all of life, particularly sickness and sadness.
Don Richardson in his book, “Eternity in their Hearts,” says that every culture has a God given key to unlock the gospel for them.
The missionary task is to discover the key
Look for the keys to unlock the best way to teach truth, grace, compassion, understanding (especially in difficult situations) with your kids. Go on a hunt. It may be a movie, a book, a circumstance. It’s there, keep on looking.