Solidarity of the Sick

Today I was trying to listen to a presentation on the internet when the sound was drowned out by sirens. I shook my head in annoyance, but as I looked out the window I noticed it was an EMS ambulance speeding by the church. A fling of guilt for feeling that way ran through my body. After all, it was only two or so weeks ago when I was in an ambulance myself with two paramedics who were both professional and had a great sense of humor which made the ride a bit more comforting. Of course, when you are taking a ride like this, the journey can be a bit harrowing – something has hit you like lightning that says that for the moment you are helpless and in need of others. That vulnerable, dependent feeling is at first very frightening and later becomes a haunting ghost that visits you from time to time with a reminder by something like an EMS siren that tells you that you are not the master of the universe you once thought you were. Life can be changed in an instant, and you can even be taken out of the picture altogether.

So, I am sure I will never look at an ambulance again in the same way. Maybe even a person in a hospital bed will never look quire the same again. There is a solidarity among the sick who know the feeling of vulnerability and powerlessness. However, you are not powerless altogether. I can remember a conversation in my drugged, dizzy, and dream-like state between the patient in the bed next to mine and me. Talking through a curtain, I found his words of welcome reassuring, and later he would find my words comforting and even asked me to pray for him.

It was Paul who said: “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Sometimes it takes a visit to the hospital to realize that.