Finding God amidst the hardship of human suffering and disability
Sometimes people come across our
path that bring change within us; they make us better than we are. I have the type
of job which allows me to connect with all sorts of people from all walks of
life. Today I was reminded of beauty of these connections when a very special
patient of mine shared his story with me. After 3 months of intensive rehabilitation,
he shared his testimony of how God is working in his life despite overwhelming
circumstances. As he shared these God-encounters, the tears rolled down my
cheeks and I thanked God for the blessing of my job. I get the opportunity to
openly talk about God with the people I encounter in my vocation – what an
incredible privilege that is!
This encounter today drove me
into a reflective space as a looked back on previous patient-encounters that have
really impacted my life. One of them was a 12 year old boy – one of my very
first patients as an occupational therapy student. With 85% of his total body
surface area burned, this child’s deformities were almost too much to bear. But
with his suffering came hope, as he engaged in therapy despite agonising pain
and made great improvements within the isolated burns unit at Red Cross
Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. That child changed me. He forced me out of my
self-consumed space as a student and made me see, really see, what life is all about. It’s not about being a “good
person”, getting good grades, living a healthy lifestyle or any other priority
we may have. Life is about living to love other people, in whatever way, shape or
form that takes for each of us.
Another such patient who will
always have a special place in my heart was a lady who suffered a partial
spinal cord injury. Instead of cursing God, she saw her disability as a gift –
a new perspective graciously given to her when she needed it most. Her
motivation and enthusiasm for her new disabling life astounded me. She reported
to be happier disabled than she had been when she was able-bodied. She got her
priorities straight, started to take note of all the joyful moments in her life
and learnt to be content in her altered body.
I have also had patient’s whose
situations have left me broken and despondent. One such patient, a young man
with a wife and a small son, really wanted to improve his situation but his
life was taken from him when the government hospital I worked for failed to
provide for his basic needs. He passed away from sepsis as a result of a poorly
treated pressure sore. I still cry for the unnecessary life we lost that day. His
death forced me to take a long hard look at our broken world and I ended up
writing a blog on suffering – check it out here.
After that something kind of
snapped in me and I walked a long road of healing to a place where I could feel
safe enough to connect with patients again. A little boy held my hand along
that road – an angel in the body of a special needs child. After my husband and
I had to move to the Free State for for his job, I was unable to get a
full-time OT post within a government hospital – clearly God knew that I was
not yet ready to get back into that harsh environment – and I took up a post as
a facilitator for a special needs child (see one of my previous blogs for more on
that). This child loved me with such unconditional love – a pure, sweet,
wholesome love that can only come from that kind of a child. God worked through
him to restore something in my soul. That child taught me how to love again.
When we moved to Johannesburg in
March of this year (2018), I ended up taking a post as in neurorehabiltation in
a private practice rehab clinic. This has been such a refreshing step for me as
I have really been challenged to improve both my knowledge and skills in
physical rehabilitation. Within my first few (very hectic) weeks on the job, I
was assigned to rehabilitate a man with Guillen-Barre’ Syndrome – a
neurological disorder where one’s immune system mistakenly attacks one’s own
nerves often causing complete paralysis. In most cases, people recover from
this condition after months or even years of pain-staking therapy and patience.
This man and his wife bring such light and positivity into our rehab clinic and
allow me a space to learn and grow while he continues to heal. Today, as
mentioned in the beginning of this blog, he shared his story of how he has
encountered God through a variety of experiences, including this debilitating
condition. His story left me speechless as I thanked God for His work in this
family’s life and their devotion to Him despite the odds. I praised God for
opportunities to speak about Him so naturally within my work context –
something that is not easily done in other career paths. This patient, his wife
and so many other like them, keep me humble and profoundly amazed by the
ability of human nature to overcome the odds. Through the beauty of human
connection and sharing of stories, I am allowed glimpses of God’s work and
grace in the world around me. I am so grateful to all the people who have allowed
me to walk a road with them, to share in their joys and sufferings, and to come
out on the other side, a far better person than what I was before.
The above encounters, as well as many others I have
not mentioned made me reflect on the idea of living a missional lifestyle – no
matter where we are. All too often as Christians, we place the emphasis on
taking God “out there” to people and
places where He is seemingly not present. However, the longer I work with people
living with a disability, the more I realise that living as a missional
Christian is often more about opening my eyes to where God is already at work, rather than trying to
squeeze Him into a workplace conversation. God doesn’t need me to tell people
about Jesus – He invites me to glimpse Him already
working in places where I least expect it. Yes, my workplace is a mission field,
but the wonderful thing is that God is already at work - I just get to be there to enjoy the ride.
