The Deacon's Wife

My phone rang just as I neared the door to exit the doctor's office outside. Brenda walked out in front and suddenly we saw a commotion. I could not concentrate on the phone call because an older man slowly collapsed to the ground just as he reached the same door. I quickly got off the phone just in time for the man to sink all the way to the ground on his stomach. Thankful he did not fall and break anything or hit his head.

His wife panicked. She started using a stream of profanity best left unrepeated. If you can think of the vilest foulest language she said it. A steady stream of filth poured from her lips. The man wanted to get up. The wife wanted him down and I felt caught in the middle not knowing for sure what to do. Brenda offered to call 911 at which the wife balked. She kept repeating I am a nurse.

All the while, the man kept trying to get up. He did get up as far as resting on both his knees but his wife begged me to hold him down and not let him get up. The man said, "This is embarrassing. Just let me get up.  Especially right in front of the door. Let me stand up." She sta?ed another steady stream of profanity.

We finally got a plan for Brenda to get their car and pull it up to the front door. I helped the man to his feet and then into the passenger seat. The wife ran inside to cancel the doctor appointment. I went around to the driver's side and told the man I was a pastor. I prayed with him. Afterwards, he told me he was a Christian and a deacon. Then he told me they had driven from Witchita Falls to Fort Worth that morning for the doctor visit.

The wife scurried out the door and into the car shouting thank you as they drove away.

What went on in that lady's life to cause her to talk that way? What stress was she under besides the immediate issue of her husband falling? What had her so frazzled she cussed like I have not heard since in a football locker room.  It seemed apparent that was not the first episode the man had fallen. I don't know what it was. It was not a seizure. That lady appeared very stressed because it happened before. .

She made everything worse. Her husband was embarrassed because of her behavior and falling in the first place. He rebelled against her frustrated and fighting against her at her instructions. Brenda and I were caught in the middle.

Jesus is still our peace in the worst storms of life. He proved that to the disciples. Maybe it would be a good reminder for all of us today. I most likely will never see that lady again. I had no time to witness to her. All the focus was on her husband. How I pray she will find the peace and that comes from knowing and walking with Jesus.

Mark 4:35-41 (NASB)
³⁵
 On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, "Let us go over to the other side."
³⁶  Leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.
³⁷  And there *arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.
³⁸  Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they *woke Him and *said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"
³⁹  And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
⁴⁰  And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
⁴¹  They became very much afraid and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"