Leaving Behind Our Earthly Burdens

The image that goes along with this post is by far one of the most powerful images I have stumbled across lately. This image depicts someone’s son, that had passed and was wheelchair bound, leaving behind his earthly “burdens/troubles” for Heaven. In my line of work, I work primarily with elderly people and over time, I have watched many of them deteriorate.

Try having to offer someone their last walk before they have both of their legs amputated the next day? That was easily one of the worst days of my career. We sat together, cried together, and cried while I prayed out loud for him. I told him that everything was going to be okay, that he still had lots of life to live, and his life would still be meaningful without his legs. I believed all of that, but it broke my heart. There are people that say that you shouldn’t let your work affect you emotionally, but how can you not? If you care about people and care about what you are doing; there is absolutely no possible way that it doesn’t affect you. But seeing this picture put everything back in perspective for me; while my patient may have lost both of his legs and now has additional challenges in his life; he will eventually be freed from those challenges and will be made perfect again.

He is not the only one. I have watched people go from walking independently to wheelchair bound, to laying in bed on death’s doorsteps. I know that it is all part of the continuum of life, but it is crazy when you watch it before your eyes. You watch people as they lose their identities, lose their ability to move, lose everything they once loved to do. We all in our lives suffer, but as 1 Peter 5:10 says: And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. This makes all of our suffering worth it. It is easy to lose sight of this as we all get caught up in our own suffering and the suffering of those we love. But we have to keep the end destination in mind; our suffering isn’t permanent.

I really needed this week. This week has been challenging for me and I think I have let things really get to me and I realistically have probably not been the best person. I feel as if I have suffered this week, but in perspective, my suffering is nothing compared to others and in the end all of my sufferings are worth it; worth the eternal life and free of suffering. Whatever challenges you may face and no matter how bad things may get; always remember the end destination and that our life on earth is short in the grand scheme of things.