The Body Works

He slipped out of Hospice room number 11 to clear his thoughts and send a few text messages.  In the lounge, doors were being locked and drapes pulled for the 8 o’clock closing time.  He spoke to the nurse briefly, crossed the room and found a seat on a comfortable couch.  The atmosphere was as peaceful as the mountain brook painting on the wall.  Without much time for his thoughts to wander, his eyes were drawn to a Guidepost on the coffee table in front of him.   On the front cover was a photo of Max Lucado. 

“It would be just like God to put something timely in my path,” he thought.  Scanning through the magazine he quickly found the article by Lucado and began reading.

“God is at his best when our life is at its worst.  We learn much more from our trials than from periods of happiness.

“Years ago my wife, Denalyn, was fighting depression.  Depression can buckle the knees of the best of us, it can be especially difficult for the wife of a pastor.  Congregants expect her to radiate joy.  They want her to be super human.  But Denalyn, to her credit, has never been one to play games.

“One Sunday when the depression was suffocating, when she could barely drag herself and the kids to church, she armed herself with honesty.  If people ask me now I am doing, I’m going to tell them, she thought.  Friends, acquaintances, church members she hardly knew, came up to her and said, ‘Good to see you.  How are you doing?’

“She didn’t hedge.  To every questioner she was candid.  ‘Not well,’ she said.  ‘I’m depressed.  Feeling overwhelmed.  Will you pray for me?’

“Obligatory chats became conversations.  Brief hellos became heartfelt moments.  By the time she left that day she had enlisted dozens of people to hold her up in prayer and to look out for her.  She was not alone.  Denalyn traces the healing of her depression to that Sunday morning service.  On her darkest day she found God’s presence among God’s people.” 

He slowly closed the magazine and placed it down on the couch beside him just as a text message beeped in.  “You all are in our prayers and we love you…we are here for you.” 

Already the body was at work.  

(Mountian Brook by Tonie Garrett)