A busy ER is often a very tragic place.
There is a very popular medical show which I enjoy watching very much for its vivid portrayal of life and death situations and how they impact the lives of those involved. It shows people of all types reacting in so many different ways. Most recently I watched an episode which clearly displayed how a driven, self-centered man learned that despite his success, some things need the grace and love of God to endure.
In the show, the man was facing the likely death of the person who was nearest and dearest to him. He previously lost his wife unexpectedly and now his young son was at death's door. The man was extremely wealthy, having turned the inheritance of a ten million dollar oil drilling company into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. In his grief, he tells the attending physician that he won't let his son die, that someone at the hospital must have made a mistake and that he would sue the hospital and physicians when he found the truth. The doctor patiently listens and tells him they are rechecking everything but that time is critical and that he was sorry. Unless something miraculously changed, nothing else could be done. He told the man he would return shortly, but would now allow the man private time with his son near death.
The distraught billionaire agonizes over the likely upcoming death of his only child after the loss of the only woman he truly loved and, for the first time in recent memory, he is facing an issue that can't be solved by his fortune. In his working life he has never failed, has always advanced his standing and his wealth beyond his wildest dreams, but now faces a problem that money can't conquer. And he regrets that he was so driven to be successful by business standards that so many times he neglected his family in the process. He just sits there and sobs next to his comatose son, trying to think of something else he could do. For the first time in many years, he bowed his head and closed his eyes in prayer.
We'll leave the story there for it has brought us to the point where it drives home the message for this blog. Has the billionaire father, a man with money to purchase anything but now finding money can't solve things, now finally turned the problem over to God? After all, God made the rich man and poor man both and God has the capability of doing anything. So, shouldn't God the Creator be given the opportunity to answer the issue for the rich man? Has that realization finally turned him to God for His love and grace? While that doesn't guarantee the answer the man wants, it will provide God's answer. Yes, he could miraculously save the boy but he also might be using the boy's life to turn his father to God instead of thinking himself to be self-sufficient. None of us can or will be self-sufficient but with God anything is possible and He has a plan for each of us.
We often don't know why God lets things happen the way they do but we need to have faith in Him and trust Him as he carries out His plan for us. If we follow Him and believe in Him through faith, we will inherit a place beside Him in His Kingdom when this life is done. It will be place free of pain, suffering and all things that are not good and it can be attained only through faith. It's hard to understand sometimes but it is true if you are willing to open your heart and accept it. That is what He wants in His plan for you. That's what he wants for the distraught billionaire, too.
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