Editors commentary: Nursing care

Thank you, John Benton, for this testimony. What a reassurance to know that it is not too late, even for a dementia-sufferer of 82, to acquire a simple faith that will endure for ten years and infinitely longer.

Evangelicals Now

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Recently doctors explained that sadly they think my mother will die soon.

She is 92, suffering from advanced dementia, and has had pneumonia. During a busy pastoral day I found time to get to the hospital, as we have been doing every day. I walked into the ward but my mother was not to be seen. I asked a nurse where she was. ‘Didn’t you know?’ she said, ‘She was moved to a nursing home this morning’. I was stunned. She was very apologetic.

What was going on?

It wasn’t quite as bad as it might first appear. We were indeed working on getting mum to a nursing home. But there were legal forms to sign and it was taking us some days to track down our situation on enduring power of attorney. The letter from NHS Continuing Care clearly stated that nothing could…

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7 Days of Thankfulness – Day 7

It was a long time coming. God – the Holy Spirit and the Father – helped me to lay part of my old self aside today. I wanted to proclaim his greatness to you all today, for that. It was a part that was causing me to fall into sin every day. And I am really, really thankful that he helped me to lay it aside. My relationship with him may take a little while to repair. But the offending part is gone. The gaping hole is going to smart and feel a bit chilly for a while until he fills it with something wholesome. But I feel so safe now. It’s finally over. I can learn how to be free again. Thank you, God. Thank you for freeing me from that gangrenous limb. Thank you for amputating it from me and letting me live.

I am thankful for the fact that Christ keeps holding onto me even when I’m struggling to meet his touch. When I struggled, there he was. I kept looking up to him, he kept looking down on me. He still did, even when I looked away.

I am thankful for the fact that Christ in God works with me in the mess I’m in and can still construct anything out of it that might glorify him in the eyes of someone else.

Thank you God. Take me back again. Teach me how to live. I’ve crucified you over and over and I’m sorry. Please help me to make good this repentance in the things that I go on to do.

If you can muster it, dear reader, please utter a prayer for me in the name of Jesus. That my rehabilitation will be good, and that I can be strengthened again in my love of God, and meet his gaze more fully, so that I can serve him more completely.