ME?!?

This week the strangest thing happened.  My husband sent me into the hospital room to visit one of the members of our church.  I never dreamed the Lord would use me in such a way.  I am a horrible comforter!!!  I don't cry very often and I am maybe the least sentimental woman I know; nevertheless the Lord was there.

This dear lady is in her early thirties and her kidneys have failed so she is on dialysis and will be for the rest of her life.  Well, her catheter got infected and it nearly killed her.  I almost titled this post "thank the Lord for cucumbers" because if it wasn't for her mother-in-law coming over to get some cucumbers from our garden, we might not have known she was in the hospital.  This family is very quiet and they keep to themselves.

We woke up extra early, packed up the family, and drove to to Batesville to visit her in the hospital (At this point I didn't know I was going into the room alone).  On the way there my husband told me for modesty sake and a few other reasons he would stay downstairs in the lobby with the girls and I would go alone.  I started praying.  What should I say?  What should I do?  What should I read?  What should I pray?

When I stepped into the room her dear husband was holding a bucket up to her mouth so she could catch what was coming out.  She heaved for about five minutes.  All I could do was stand there and watch as she heaved and cried...silently.  Tears streaming down her face.  Once again I prayed...

Finally I asked her how she was doing - dumb question - to which she replied OK.  She went back to heaving and I began to talk to her husband and ask him questions.  Finally the nurse came in and gave her some medication for nausea and then we were able to talk. 

In the end, the Lord led me to read Psalm 40 and just pray a simple prayer for her and her loved ones.  Mainly I prayed for their hearts to be comforted and for them to remember the Lord and for all of us to remember that our lives and health are precious. 

Psalm 40:1-3 are my favorite verses; but there are some really precious verses in the latter end that I think both she and her husband needed to hear.  Psalm 40 reads as follows:

I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified. But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.