Lynn Jones: Lessons we can learn in ICU
By Lynn Jones
My father-in-law, Dan, was born into a first-generation Romanian family in Ohio. He first learned to speak Romanian and did not learn to speak English until he went to school. This late start on the King’s English left its marks on him. He often had a “creative” way of hearing and speaking English.
For instance, as he drank coffee with his friends one morning after recently moving to Booneville, one of them invited him to go with him to the First Monday trade days held in Ripley. He asked Dan, “Have you ever been to First Monday?” Dan said, “No, but I’ve been to Ruby Tuesday.”
One year Danielle and I carried her parents with us to Fulton to see the football game between Northeast and Itawamba Community College. As the ICC band was assembling for their halftime show, Dan asked me, “Is that the band from ICU?” I explained that it was not the band from the Intensive Care Unit but the band from Itawamba Community College.
You’ll have to hand it to Dan, however. ICU sounds like a school of higher learning, and, in fact, it often is. Those who spend time in ICU have enrolled in a difficult school. Enrollment is generally compulsory. You seldom find anyone who shows up and petitions for admittance.
The late Frank Herrington served for many years as pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He battled heart trouble over the years, and, on one occasion, underwent bypass surgery. As he was recovering from that surgery, he spent some time in the ICU.
Before the surgery, the doctors had advised him about how serious the surgery was, and they laid out the probabilities of his surviving it. After the surgery, as he began regaining consciousness in the noise and bright lights of the ICU, he looked around and said, “Lord, if this is heaven, it certainly is a disappointment.” Later, as his recovery progressed, he began to chafe under the isolation and boredom of the ICU. About this time, a psychologist came in to visit him to assess his mental state. In the course of the interview, she asked him, “What is your goal in life?” He pointed and said, “Do you see that door there?”
The fact of the matter is that time spent enrolled in ICU is difficult for the student and his/her family. In spite of that, important, sometimes life-changing, lessons are learned while enrolled in ICU.
We learn things about our frailty and the need to be good stewards of every day God has given us. It helps us reorder our priorities and rethink our values. Sometimes our time spent in the ICU leaves a lasting mark on us. That’s not all bad. Jacob was a better man with his limp than he had been before. So was Paul with his thorn in the flesh.
Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.
