Your Dying Spouse 292 - The Caregiver And The Mustard Seed

"Your husband would be healed if you just had more faith!"

I think most caregivers have heard this variation - and misapplication - of Matthew 17:20:

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

This was Jesus' reply to His apostles when they could not cure a boy possessed by a demon, so He had to wade in and do it.

In the correct context, Jesus is commenting on our condition...well, commenting on the fact that our faith is conditional. We're always second-guessing it, and in this life there's almost no way that it can have even a mustard-seed's-worth of purity.

We don't have the focus we need to have the faith, and in this life, we never will.

Well, almost never.

You've no doubt heard of instances in which a single person lifted a car or tractor off a trapped person, thereby saving a life...and after the fact could not budge the thing.

Wikipedia calls it hysterical strength, and quotes learned sources as saying that these incidents, while theoretically possible, are anecdotal. For a certain ind of scientist, if it can't be reproduced under laboratory condition, it didn't happen.

Well, yes, they're anecdotal because they can't be duplicated under controlled condition, in a lab. (Care to volunteer to be pinned under a car, all in the name of Science, while your instrumented-up-the-wazoo-grandmother tires to lift it?)

Case in point - on June 4, 1942, Floyd Adkins, the radioman/gunner in Ens. Bill Pittman's dive-bomber, had his 175-lb gun mount break loose. Adkins not only caught and steadied the guns, but he also shot down a Japanese fighter. After returning to the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, Adkins (who weighed less than the guns) couldn't lift the assembly.

Anecdotal? Sure. But I think the dead Japanese fighter pilot would have thought differently.

Hysterical strength? I think not. I think this is an example of focused faith, the kind we can only experience for very short times, and it's something we can't manufacture.

We have to accept what and who we are, flawed beings whose faith is diluted to a microscopic amount...but we can take heart that there lies the potential, the God-strength within us, to go far beyond what we thought we could do.

And that, dear caregiver, is, I hope, your comfort. You may not have the faith to save your husband or wife, but I believe that you do have the faith that will one day let you look back over your caregiving journey and marvel...

"Was it really me, doing all that?"

Now over to The Digital Age, for 'Captured'...

A bit of news..."Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart" has come home! Tate Publishing has gone south, and I regained the rights, so it'll soon be available in both Kindle hardcopy versions once again. In the meantime, if you absolutely can't wait (!), you can still get used copies from Amazon.

I have another blog, "Starting The Day With Grace". The focus is a grace quote from someone you might not expect (like, say Mick Jagger) and a short commentary. I hope you'll join me.

Marley update... been moved to a sanctuary, and Bay County will revise their 'dangerous dog' codes.

WE MADE A DIFFERENCE!

And marley has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

If you can, please do leave a comment. I am trying to answer all, and I am failing, but please know this - I read and treasure each one.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.