My Voice - Life Support

So I woke up this morning really early thinking about life support. No, really, that was my first waking thought. You know life support has two primary functions. One, obviously, is to sustain life, to keep a pulse and to make breathing happen. The second is to stabilize life so healing can occur and real life can be resumed.

This morning, I woke up and started thinking about how many families we know that are on life support. Families just hanging on, barely able to breath and survive another day. Our countries social services are often great at doing phase one of life support: keep the family alive, breathing. Resources are brought to bear and the family stays alive, barely, struggling daily for life. I think the church is the key to stage 2 of life support. When the church brings the hope of Christ into a situation, surrounded by the resources it has to offer, lives should begin to stabilize, healing can occur and families can begin to live real life together.

This morning, I am convicted that too often, I allow families to linger at stage one of life support. Unfortunately, I allow this because quite frankly it's easier. But once in a while, I see God move in His people, and they take on the difficult work of helping someone move from stage one to stage two of life support and eventually to move off life support altogether. Doing what is easy is rarely right and doing what is right is rarely easy.

A friend of mine in our church used to be part of a family on life support. I remember when I first met her family, I often wondered if they would survive. I remember how young people came around her kids and how the entire family folded into the community of Christ. I remember seeing the stability of God move into their lives. I now see the strength of pulse this family has and am so encouraged. I am thankful today for this family and the real life they live.