After Frailty

PREFACE: I broke this essay on frailty into two parts, the first of which you might have received last week. It has been a hard thing to write. At times I was blocked and unsure about that which needed saying. But a wonderful thing occurred when I pushed through to completing the first episode; the second quickly evolved. I did not expect this, but I guess I will have to accept the evidence that God knows what He is doing even when I don’t. Even when my frailty peeks out around the edges. My hope is that even in the midst of wrestling with reality, you will be encouraged.

Forest

And so…

Until we are brought face to face with a dire prognosis that death is certain, we pretend it is only a mild cough, nothing to worry about. Wouldn’t Medicine be grand if diagnoses were only benign, we could go on living like Pollyanna! But without an accurate, realistic diagnosis, treatment cannot be tailored to the disease even if there are medical “guided missiles” capable of wiping out the sickness completely, curing the patient and allowing life to continue. Of course, we often choose to ignore the problem, avoid an ugly reality, pretend we’ll get better on our own. If only it were so.

In Matthew 26:36ff we read, “Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’ Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again he went away for the second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’ Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.’" For sin, the cure, the reality, was so terrible, even the Lord was afraid and anxious.

So why would I focus on what seems to end in a funeral dirge?

Because it doesn’t have to end that way. But it also doesn’t mean we get to bypass the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Gotta get through that before you can get to the other side. I wrote the previous piece because we always like to skip over that “unpleasant” reality part and skip to the good parts. I thought I’d let it sit for a few days before moving on.

The Apostle Paul says, “When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us (Romans 8:15-18). Jesus tells us in this world we will have suffering, but we can have peace and take courage because He has over come the world (John 16:33). Therefore, it would seem although frailty is inevitable, we can stand against it. I don’t mean avoid the suffering, I mean overcome it. Because Jesus did. And we must go where He leads, even if it is not where we would wish to go.

As hard as it is, it could be worse. Our greatest, most secret, fear is that none of it matters, that our existential reality is truly hopeless and we are deluding ourselves that there is something incredibly glorious awaiting us on the other side of this present darkness. That is the crux of the matter, is it not? If it is possible, let this cup pass from me, let me not be a deluded fool. And yet, because the cup was not passed from Him, the Father’s terrible will was done, and Jesus conquered sin and death. Not a bad outcome.

Once for all, He conquered.

We can have peace.

We can stand in Him.

And now we stand with Him.

His will, not mine. Gotta get through the Valley of the Shadow to stand with Jesus in Heaven.

The worst for me is not really the frailty, the helplessness; I’ve seen too much reality in my medical career and just life. The worst for me is the fear I will not acquit myself well, that even with the excuse of dementia I might deny my Lord, again. That in my weakness, my frailty, I might fail to consider, to count on, the riches of His grace. The Apostle Paul again, “Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh (frailty?), a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 13:7ff). It is a beautifully reassuring promise and I must reflect upon it. His grace is sufficient. His power is made perfect in my frailty. I will be content. For when I am frail, then Christ is strong in me.

Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, you are with me Lord and I will fear no evil. You are my strength. You teach me. You bear me up on eagles’ wings. You set a banquet for me in the presence of my enemies, the powers and principalities, the rulers of this present world and evil in high places. You have saved me (justification). You, Lord, are teaching me and setting me apart for your purposes (sanctification), and you will deliver me to stand with you in the presence of God our Father (glorification). Here and now, I claim the promise that nothing can snatch me from your hand, Jesus.

Paul the Apostle says it best in Romans 8:31ff, “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, sword, or frailty? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor frailty, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Please forgive my modifications.

Here’s the thing I had missed earlier on: His strength is made perfect in my weakness, in my frailty. God said it. I believe it. Doesn’t make it easy, just that despite our frailty, as Paul says in Philippians 1:6, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”

My conclusion: Frailty is the vestibule of Heaven.