A Rock in Times of Turmoil
Last week, one of my nurse practitioners shared this story with me that I think illustrates the essence of our mission, especially over the past three months:
“I went with Dr. Kim to visit ‘A’, a home visit patient with a history of progressive dementia. The family reported that she had become listless, lethargic and wondered whether they would have to consider hospice care at last. When we got there, we noticed that the whole family had gathered. None of the children had been to her house for the last 2 1/2 months, because of fears of passing coronavirus to their mother. Although nearly blind and severely demented, ‘A’ picked up tremendously upon hearing voices which we believe triggered familiarity to her. She was lovingly holding her son’s arm during the majority of our visit. We prayed for the family and the patient, and the children of the patient exclaimed afterwards that this was the most lively and active they had seen her for many months – ‘it is like she is coming back from the dead’. They also were appreciative at our example of how to be cautious in engaging with their mother while seeing how not to let coronavirus stop them from seeing her. It confirmed for me why God has me here, and why we are doing what we are doing.”
There are many other stories just like this; stories of patients turning to us, tearfully hugging us when they realized we had never left and never closed our doors - and that we were unafraid to touch them or hug them back. A local hospital medical director told me last week that because of Beacon’s outpatient aggressiveness, he calculated that we singlehandedly stopped 3% of their total potential admissions to his hospital for COVID-19. Other residents and students from around NYC have shared how God had allowed our presence as a health center to encourage them and allow them to begin to process the horrors of what they had been through on the floors, or the stresses on their campuses.
Today, Pastor Josh Feay of Black Rock Church really challenged Janet and me in his message. He challenged his listeners to not be content with going “back to normal”, but to aim to be “BETTER than normal”. In describing the story of Joseph in Genesis, he asked the question today of how, in between chapters 37 and 39, Joseph went from being what could be described as a vain, pampered adolescent to a cool-headed, humble, responsible, God-fearing servant in Potiphar’s house? The short answer is that God somehow showed Joseph, through his extreme experiences of suffering and injustice, how he could be better than what he was before.
This is exactly the kind of challenge Beacon strives to meet as we continue to prayerfully be part of God’s healing solution in NYC. We’re committed to showing people that beyond the politics, beyond the failures of humanity, beyond the despair, beyond the emotional ups and downs, there is in fact a “Better Way” - a way that lets us be better than simply “returning to normal”. What many may see as the “worst of times” may in fact be the very “best of times,” because it is when we endure the former, we see that in fact, God is calling us to be the very best that He created all of us to be. May we at Beacon live up to that God-given potential as we continue to “fight the good fight” in this broken city of ours which still needs so much healing.
God bless, and thanks in advance for your prayers for us, the staff, our families (some of whom mourn the loss of loved ones to COVID-19), the community we serve, and the students and residents we teach.
