A Time for Every Season - Pt 4

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV).

At the risk of sounding petty and childish, I come to the third lesson of my stay in the hospital. It involves the ubiquitous hospital gown. I suppose I should be grateful that it was not paper; however, with wires attached to seven different points on my chest for heart monitoring, IV’s, heart rate and oxygen monitors wired to other monitors, I can say with absolute certainty that I don’t like hospital gowns in any material or pattern. You can print the material with happiest of cartoon characters or prettiest of flowers, they are not something I would choose to ever wear, especially in front of strangers. I found the picture accompanying today’s devotional on a web site dealing with the “new” design elements in gowns. Four happy young adults (models at the peak of the health) stand in poses designed to put the best look of the gown forward. Well, still I come to the conclusion that I’d much rather wear my jeans and Aggie sweatshirt! So, I must come to the conclusion that it is best to simply accept the humiliation of wearing the same unflattering gown everyone else wears. This is good for all of us. Most of the time we have control over our outward persona. We can dress in a way that presents us as more dignified (or self-sufficient) than we are. Picture the difference between the Don Emmitte with his jeans, maroon something (with A&M logos of course) preaching or teaching, and the Don Emmitte with his blue and white, split-down-the-back hospital robe hobbling to the bathroom in his nonslip, yellow footies, dragging the IV pole and countless wires with him. This is a great reality check. We are all weak, vulnerable, fairly plain, physical specimens, who are getting less attractive all the time. Paul writes, “But thanks be to God, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (v. 16). The great truth here is that the apostle begins this declaration that our “outward self is wasting away,” or simply that we are getting older and weaker in every way, with “Thanks be to God!” I need to be reminded that a part of the glorious redemption of God is in my physical transformation as well as my spiritual one. I may not be in control of the way I “look” now, but a day is coming when that will all be changed! Thanks be to God!