A Reward for the Warrior
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
will award to me on that day.
II Timothy 4:7 (NIV)
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In the last years of my career as a nurse, I had the honor to work in an inpatient hospice unit. I started my nursing career in the obstetrics department, helping new life come into this world. I finished it, helping people transition from this life to the next. On one of my last nights as a nurse, one of my patients was a World War II veteran who was in the last days of his last fight.
I was reminded again that as significant as the first and last days of our lives are, it is the days in between that are of greatest consequence. The length of those days varies from person to person, but there are a few experiences in life common to all of us.
Probably the most important experience of life is love. Of course love is defined in many ways and we all have our favorite definition. My favorite is “caring more about the thoughts, feelings and needs of another, than what we care about our own.”
Last night I was glad I had some time to spend just listening to my patient, the veteran, talk. He was confused at times, but I have found that the heart of a person can still be seen, sometimes better, through the ramblings of confusion.
My WW II vet talked to me about love last night. He told me that he married his childhood sweetheart as soon as he got home from the war. He said he had loved her since they were knee high. I thought I saw a twinkle in his foggy eyes when he spoke of her. That was before the tears, when he told me she had died.
That brings us to the experience of pain ; physical and emotional (that sometime comes from loving). My patient told me he had served in Italy in the war. He even showed me the scars on each arm that have been his constant reminder of his days and nights of physical pain and emotional terror that he endured for his country and for my freedom. I thanked him for his service. He told me that sometimes you have to do things in life you really don’t want to do, but there were rewards for doing it. I think he was talking about having contributed to the freedom of mankind rather than the medal he received. The name of the medal had slipped his mind.
The experience of loving is one that all of us want in life, pain is the one we don’t want. Those two along withe many others contribute to the person we become in life. But I think it is those two, love and pain that either make us better people or they leave us feeling worthless, powerless, abandoned or disillusioned.
In the middle of his confusion last night, I believe that my patient felt like his life had been good, in spite of the war and his lost love. I think he felt like the world was a better place because he had been one of those people who cared more about the needs of others than he did of his own.
When I leave this world, I hope I can say the same thing. But what I want more than anything is for my Creator, my Savior to meet me on the other side and way, “well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful.” That reward will be better than any medal.
© 2011 Brenda J. Young
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