"In you, oh Lord, my soul in stillness waits; surely my hope is in you."
Dear Friends,
Some years back, I was serving in a Home for the Dying with the Missionaries of Charity. There was a woman there who was dying from tuberculosis. She was gasping for breath, and the inhaler she had been given was not helping her. She was skin and bones and so weak she could not support herself enough to sit. I sat behind her so she could lean against my chest and I could hold her up as she fought to breathe.
I am a nurse by trade and spent more than 20 years working in first-class intensive care units with the best medicine and resources within arm’s reach. In poor countries, the options are minimal. I struggled interiorly with the injustice of it all. I could do nothing to alleviate her suffering or change the outcome. She was going to die. I felt her lungs seizing as she leaned against me. I began to sing a hymn, and soon several of the other patients joined me. Those who could not sing, including the woman in my arms, lifted their hands to the Lord in praise. This world was passing away for all of them, and their only hope was in the Lord.
In this fast-paced world where we often feel we are not enough, I am reminded of the wise words that the sister who I worked with shared with me: “The Lord only asks us to do the best we can with what we have at the moment, the rest is in His hands.”
As the season of Advent winds down and the Year of Hope comes to a close, may the Lord accompany you and your loved ones and may you never lose hope.
Yours in the Heart of Jesus.
Donna
