For Better or For Worse

Most of us would associate “For Better or For Worse” with words spoken in a wedding vow. I repeated those simple words many years ago with little or no thought of what they might one day entail. Today, however, my mind went beyond the original intent of those words to consider what it would be like if we applied that vow to other areas of life.

For those of you who have been following my wife’s progress after a ruptured brain aneurysm, you know the outlook was dire at best. Today, day 17, she is out of ICU and is on a specialty neuro floor. During her first few days in ICU, I didn’t know whether I would be planning a funeral or if she would return home disabled. Today, I honestly wasn’t thinking nor have I thought about my vows during this 17-day journey. While in thankfulness for her continuing good recovery, my mind extrapolated on the words…for better or for worse.

I landed on one big thought…our nation is very seriously ill and needs to be admitted to the ICU! I also believe that the illness has spread to all corners of our society. I am reminded of a time a few thousand years ago when God allowed his chosen people to drift in their worship and dependence on Him. When things got bad enough they would repent and pray. Sadly, little has changed in 3,000 years. We drift and pray, drift, drift and pray….

Just over two weeks ago a wildfire of prayer was started for my wife. First a few prayed, then hundreds and thousands prayed. To date her medical team is amazed at her recovery. She may still have some rough days and months ahead, but people will still pray. I just couldn’t help wondering this morning the affect fervent prayer would have on our seriously ill nation, our workplace, our coworkers, friends, family and even ourselves. Lord knows we tried everything else and that hasn’t worked so well! Prayer, as the saying goes, changes things, but the biggest thing prayer changes is…us.

Stan Means
Elder Source Senior Ministries

Get the new Elder Source Senior Ministries Mobile App
Get our new Aging E-Newspaper at agingweekly.com