This week has been parked my something unusual: Death.
Death is inevitable and going to happen to us all and everyone we know but is a rather un-talked about subject in this culture.
so lets talk about it a little....
This past week I started by final semester of nursing school. The nursing class is critical care (advanced med/surg) ICU/emergency nursing. All of the things that we have learned are now needing to be recalled. All lab values, all meds, all assessments need to be applied. The thing we all have been dreaming of is almost coming true: being a real nurse. The steps to attaining that goal are 7 weeks of clinical, 7 weeks of our own preceptorship (12 hours shifts with a nurse where we are doing the primary care), graduation, and passing NCLEX (the nursing boards). So the first portion of this is to complete the 7 weeks of clinical. I am working at an amazing hospital in orange county in the ICUs. So this past week we went to the hospital to get oriented. As we walk onto the unit we see a family outside crying...and we sensed it....
we walked onto the unit....passed by a room filled with people but no monitors were beeping...that means the patient is no longer hooked up to them, meaning they have passed on...
after the family had left, our professor ushered us into the room to pray for the family and with the primary nurse...
we were able to look into the face of a beautiful woman whose soul had left her physical body and was now where she will spend eternity...
it was emotional.
by the grace of god i was able to pray in the room for the family to be comforted, strengthened and able to weep and mourn and celebrate the life that was lived...
it was powerful...
can I just tell you though how good our GOD is...
this past semester being in south Africa and working in Zulu communities in which HIV/AIDS, violence, and many other reasons where DEATH is such a daily part of living. There were many times where we would interact with people in the communities that had just lost loved ones that day, that week, that month and they would talk openly about it.
Death was part of life.
Death was talked about.
Death was expected.
Death was viewed differently then it is here. When someone dies in a Zulu community you dont say "i am sorry" you say things like
~ "Sikhala kanye nawe" which means "I cry with you"
~ "Ulale ngenxeba" which means "time heals, sleep with the wound"
~ "Ngiyakuzwela" which means " i sympathize with you"
~ "Inkosi mayibe nawe" which means "may the lord be with you"
The Lord allowed me to wrestle with death this past semester in ways i had never done before. The mindset that the lord has given me is very different then that of typical western culture that is all about DEFYING death and doing all that they can to avoid it, look younger, not grow old, and not talk about or acknowledge death.
I am so thankful that the LORD used last semester to prepare me for this past week. I am not saying that I was not emotion filled because i was and it was truly a powerful experience, but I was able to pray and lead my group in a time of prayer and wrestling because the LORD had faithfully provided time for me to do so previously.
God is good.
God is faithful.
Death in this life, in the physical is not the end.
It is truly only the beginning.
This changes the way we view death more then any cultural differences could.
2 Corinthians 15
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
So, when you are faced with death, may we say "Ulale ngenxeba" that "time heals", and may we be willing to say to those are around us facing death "sikhala kanye nawe" that we will cry with you
my dear brothers and sisters no matter where this post finds you INKOSI MAYIBE NAWE-- MAY THE LORD BE WITH YOU.
May the Holy Spirit truly be the Comforter of our souls.
May he deliver peace that will guard our hearts and minds.
May he provide all that we need to serve him.
Because we truly have a High Priest that can say "ngiyakuzwela"--I sympathize--because he sympathizes with us in every way.
Praise be to God.
We are Victorious.
1. I love reading your blog because it ALWAYS encourages me.
ReplyDelete2. I am so thankful that it's YOU working with those families, because the joy of the Lord is your strength!
3. Thank you for sharing those Zulu sayings; that is so beautiful! What a different and more healthy way of looking at death than we do in the West. I'll remember that. :)
I love you Megan!! You are beautiful. And a great writer. :) thanks for this. :)