Wrecked

Dedicated to a very dear friend…

I can see it clearly. Blue lights are flashing in the dark as people who work for emergency services are dashing around in high visibility vests. The police, vehicle recovery agents, firefighters and most importantly, paramedics, are not contemplating what they will be having for dinner nor when they will clock off their shift. They care for people and they are searching around, looking for casualties.

Several cars with crushed bonnets and smashed windscreens are parked at odd angles in the middle of the road, as 2 lanes are cordoned off from emerging traffic. Twenty-five orange cones solemnly tell the drivers approaching that they will have to slow down and accept that single file traffic will be in place for at least 900 yards.

They will have to forget about getting home in time to watch their favourite television programme and are thanking God for Catch-up T.V., video recorders and +1 channels.

The injured are attended to with oxygen masks, torniquets, bandages and defibrillators as they lie helpless on their backs.

You however, are not on the tarmac.

Your body was thrown through the windscreen and landed way off into a bush.

The pain is unbearable as your spine rests in an odd position and blood pours out of a head-wound.

Luckily, the medical team have been trained to search for hidden casualties and they find you quickly, even though you are too weak to shout out for help. Being aware of the extent of your injuries, you actually don’t want any assistance apart from deliverance from the pain. You want to die. Who’s going to miss you anyway? Who’s going to care? You’re fed up with enduring an existence where every circumstance hurts.

Isn’t that how you feel right now reading this? No energy to scream, and no more will to live?

It’s not your body, but your mind that cannot bear any more torment. The rejection, financial ruin, apathetic loved-ones, uninterested church leaders, friends or spouse. The fear for tomorrow and hopelessness as every day brings new challenges and more anxieties to add to your already overloaded quota.

But thankfully, God is like the paramedic who sees you in the dark when nobody else spots you lying there all broken. He is coming to you with his stretcher, splints, medication and painkillers. He’s coming to you with his comfort. Medical staff are well known for telling seriously injured patients who are terrified to bits and in shock, that they are doing well and to hold on. As their heart rate lowers and their skin turns deathly pale, they are then told, “Stay with me!” Many cannot even fathom the words being said as they pass from this world into the next.

But when God attends to your emotional injuries and tells you to hold on, you know that by clinging to him, you WILL be alright. When he says, “Stay with me!” that’s all you need to hear, because he is the giver of life and all things good. It’s the waiting that’s hard, but he encourages us to hold on because he will pull us through.

It may be dark and scary right now,

…but one day you will be in the rehabilitation ward learning how to walk again. And he will be right there by your side encouraging you along and rejoicing with you as your wounds heal one by one.