rehabilitation. It has helped me regain some of my energy and stamina following surgery. I have to admit, exercise is not something that comes naturally to me. Since running track and cross country in high school, it has seemed more of a task than a pleasure. I remember one of our track coach’s favorite practice activities. We would run around White Rock Lake in Dallas while he was following behind us in his blue VW (Volkswagen) bug. He would honk and we would jog; then honk again and we would sprint. This would continue for several miles. We spent much of our time devising plans for what might happen to the VW and its driver when we hit a particularly deserted stretch of the road. My son Jared also ran cross country in high school and had a shirt that read, “My sport is your sport’s punishment.” I agree with that sentiment. Running on a treadmill is just a little too close to the activity a gerbil does on one of those rotating wheels in their cage.
However, I would have to admit my cardio-rehab class was very helpful and I plan to keep going with the exercise. One day during my rehab class, I met Dave, a former heart surgery patient and volunteer with the hospital. His job was to distract us from the gerbil activity and make our exercise time go a little faster. During one of our conversations Dave said, “My life really started when I was fifty.” I asked if that was when he had his surgery. He said, “No, but it was when my life changed.” He went on to tell me the story. He was an unhappy person who hated his job, was having difficulties in his marriage which would eventually result in a divorce and viewed life strictly through negativity.
One day he was riding in a car with a friend (he paused to note he wasn’t sure why this person was his friend, because he was pretty miserable to be around in those days.). He was complaining about life in general and specifically about some physical problems he was experiencing. His friend said he knew a doctor that could help him with his problem and he thought he could get him in to see him if he wanted. Dave said he did and, to his surprise, the man stopped the car at a nearby pay phone, called the doctor and made an appointment for him in an hour.
They drove to Children’s Medical Center. Dave asked how a doctor at a children’s hospital was the answer to his problems, but his friend just said, “Trust me, you’ll see.” They went inside and entered the office of a doctor of oncology. Dave said, he had never heard of the doctor and didn’t know what oncology was. He got right in to see the doctor and was invited to describe his problems to him. Dave said he was delighted to have the opportunity to complain a little more. After listening intently for quite a while, the doctor said, “I think I can help you. I want you to come to a camp I run every summer for children with cancer and be a counselor. I guarantee you it will help you.” Dave said he was so taken back by the doctor’s prescription that he said, “Ok.” Dave spent the next several weeks trying to get out of his commitment, but his friend wouldn’t let him. He spent two weeks at the camp that summer…and then for the next twenty summers. Dave said, “I just needed someone to help and when I found those kids I started to live again.”
My guess is we are all like Dave in that when we find someone to help we come alive again. Stonebridge UMC is full of opportunities to help people. Let us help you help others, so that you can start living again. Yes, rehabilitation comes in a myriad of fashions.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
What I Learned from the Hospital
Do you remember returning to school after the summer break and receiving the first homework assignment of the year – write an essay on “What I did over my Summer Vacation”? You know you are old when you start writing articles like “What I learned while I was in the Hospital.” But I did learn (or was reminded of) some things while I convalesced in my hospital room that I would like to pass on to you.
First, I learned how important simple gestures of concern and love can be. Sometimes we forget the power of sending a get well card or providing a meal or making a visit or a phone call. In receiving those from you, I was reminded of how important they are to healing. Being one of the infirmed can make you feel isolated. Receiving a card or a call brought me back into community. Don’t neglect to make one of those simple gestures by minimizing its importance.
Which brings me to my second revelation; ministers are some of the worst hospital visitors ever. I am very grateful so many of my minister friends and colleagues took the time to come and visit me. There were times there were so many ministers in the room they would fight to see who would get to pray over me before they left. However, there were a few of my colleagues who forgot the task at hand. Their voices were loud, their visits were too long and I was not ready to host a party in my room. When visiting someone in the hospital, we should be aware of how the patient is feeling and let that determine the tone and timing of our visit. I was visited by one minister (who I don’t know all that well) who came to my room at 9:30 the night following my surgery, took off his coat and hat and sat down and talked for 45 minutes. By the time he left I was exhausted. He was ob livious to how I was feeling. His visit will make me a better visitor. It really is all about the one in the bed.
I also found the best visitors were those who had been in the hospital before. They knew what it was like to be there. They had the most important tool we can have in visiting – empathy. Empathy enables us to identify with and feel the needs of the person we are visiting. Empathy is the most direct path for sharing God’s love.
Another thing I learned was the importance of encouragement. The staff at the hospital must have had a course in encouraging your patients, because, starting the morning after my surgery, the nurses got me out of my bed and on to the walking track. Everything hurt and, even though I knew walking was an important part of the healing process, my brain told me to quit and get back in bed. It was their encouragement that kept me going. Nurses, doctors, the woman cleaning the hall, the maintenance guy, all told me how well I was doing. By the time they finished with me, I was ready to run a marathon – well, a really short one. Say an encouraging word to someone today. Make it a spiritual discipline in your life.
Finally, you have heard it said, “If you have your health you have everything.” While in the hospital I found out that is not true. Our health is certainly something for which we should be extremely thankful, but I saw several people in the hospital whose health was just a distant memory and yet they were filled with joy. (Joy is a feeling of peace and hope and confidence when there is no logical reason to feel that way.) That joy comes from the Spirit of God and that Spirit is healing.
Grace and peace,
John Mollet
First, I learned how important simple gestures of concern and love can be. Sometimes we forget the power of sending a get well card or providing a meal or making a visit or a phone call. In receiving those from you, I was reminded of how important they are to healing. Being one of the infirmed can make you feel isolated. Receiving a card or a call brought me back into community. Don’t neglect to make one of those simple gestures by minimizing its importance.
Which brings me to my second revelation; ministers are some of the worst hospital visitors ever. I am very grateful so many of my minister friends and colleagues took the time to come and visit me. There were times there were so many ministers in the room they would fight to see who would get to pray over me before they left. However, there were a few of my colleagues who forgot the task at hand. Their voices were loud, their visits were too long and I was not ready to host a party in my room. When visiting someone in the hospital, we should be aware of how the patient is feeling and let that determine the tone and timing of our visit. I was visited by one minister (who I don’t know all that well) who came to my room at 9:30 the night following my surgery, took off his coat and hat and sat down and talked for 45 minutes. By the time he left I was exhausted. He was ob livious to how I was feeling. His visit will make me a better visitor. It really is all about the one in the bed.
I also found the best visitors were those who had been in the hospital before. They knew what it was like to be there. They had the most important tool we can have in visiting – empathy. Empathy enables us to identify with and feel the needs of the person we are visiting. Empathy is the most direct path for sharing God’s love.
Another thing I learned was the importance of encouragement. The staff at the hospital must have had a course in encouraging your patients, because, starting the morning after my surgery, the nurses got me out of my bed and on to the walking track. Everything hurt and, even though I knew walking was an important part of the healing process, my brain told me to quit and get back in bed. It was their encouragement that kept me going. Nurses, doctors, the woman cleaning the hall, the maintenance guy, all told me how well I was doing. By the time they finished with me, I was ready to run a marathon – well, a really short one. Say an encouraging word to someone today. Make it a spiritual discipline in your life.
Finally, you have heard it said, “If you have your health you have everything.” While in the hospital I found out that is not true. Our health is certainly something for which we should be extremely thankful, but I saw several people in the hospital whose health was just a distant memory and yet they were filled with joy. (Joy is a feeling of peace and hope and confidence when there is no logical reason to feel that way.) That joy comes from the Spirit of God and that Spirit is healing.
Grace and peace,
John Mollet
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Thank You!
You guys are the best! Stonebridge United Methodist has always been known as a caring congregation – “The Most Joyful Place on Earth” as we like to say – but during my recovery from surgery you out did yourselves. For over a month after I got home from the hospital, there was not a day that went by I did not receive multiple get well cards from people in the congregation. The children in our Sunshine Kids preschool and our Children’s Sunday School sent me hundreds of homemade cards. (My favorite was the heart made out of buttons one of the preschool classes gave me. It had a Scooby-Doo band-aid across the front of it and a magnet on the back. It is still displayed on our refrigerator door.) The Care Team filled our house with food. Susan said every pound I lost she gained because of all the good eats. The Threads of Hope ministry made me a prayer blanket that brought warmth and comfort on those difficult days and reminded me of my thankfulness on the good ones. Even the church staff delivered the results of one of their staff meeting devotionals that centered on prayers for my health and healing. I have to admit, until I was the recipient of the care of the church, I wasn’t able to fully understand its power. I hope ever person in this church who is in the need of God’s comfort will feel it through the acts of caring of this congregation. Don’t let any opportunity to share God’s love pass you by. From one who knows a lot more about it now than I did two months ago, each opportunity can be a blessing. Thank you.
Also, I want to remind you of a program we are having here at the church this Saturday night. Jose Luis Portillo, director of Proyecto Abrigo (Project Shelter), the mission with which we work in Juarez, Mexico, will be with us to give an update on the ministry and the situation in Juarez. This is your opportunity to find out first hand the dangers and fears that fill the hearts of our neighbors to the south and the effects it is having on the ministry of building houses for the poorest of the poor in Juarez. If you have been a part of this ministry, I know you will make every effort to be present. If you have thought about becoming involved in our mission work there, this would be a great first step toward your commitment. We will meet at the church at 6:30 pm for a light dinner.
Grace and peace,
John Mollet
Also, I want to remind you of a program we are having here at the church this Saturday night. Jose Luis Portillo, director of Proyecto Abrigo (Project Shelter), the mission with which we work in Juarez, Mexico, will be with us to give an update on the ministry and the situation in Juarez. This is your opportunity to find out first hand the dangers and fears that fill the hearts of our neighbors to the south and the effects it is having on the ministry of building houses for the poorest of the poor in Juarez. If you have been a part of this ministry, I know you will make every effort to be present. If you have thought about becoming involved in our mission work there, this would be a great first step toward your commitment. We will meet at the church at 6:30 pm for a light dinner.
Grace and peace,
John Mollet
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