A VANISHED FRIEND
I recently had the privilege of reading an article written by Dr Max Pemberton, and this is what he had to say: As a Doctor I have seen many people die.
I have sat in clinics and told Mothers they’ll never see their children grow up and saddest of all, I have knelt in the late-night gloom of a hospital ward and held pensioners’ hands as they slipped away.
In my own experience many years ago, I can vividly recall being woken early one morning by a phone call from one of my friends, with the words: Rick had an accident last night and is in hospital!
I got dressed, rushed to the hospital and entered the ward, where I expected to see Rick lying in bed with a few bandages wrapped around him. Instead I was confronted by the Matron who asked if she could help. I said I was here to see Rick and enquired if it was possible to visit him.
She looked away taking a deep breath and with a tiny tear in one corner of her eye, she whispered that I was too late.
Rick had passed away a few hours before.
Rick was a speedway rider, and a very good one at that, and had been taking part in the semi-finals the night before. In the second race and on the last lap, he took the third last corner at tremendous speed and ran headlong into the fence and collided with a floodlight post. Although his crash helmet took the brunt of the impact, he sustained head and neck injuries from which it was impossible for him to recover.
There was nothing the Doctors and Nurses could do.
I recall being utterly devastated by his death. Rick and I were good friends. We had spent a great deal of time together and got to know each other very well and to have that relationship come to an abrupt end was hard to deal with. For weeks after, I went about my daily business with a profound sense of shock and confusion.
This disturbing incident got me thinking about life and how brief it can be.
There are those who come to the end of their lives who appear content with their lot. Then there are those whose last days are filled with regret.
I greatly admire the Nurses and Doctors who look after and see patients at their most vulnerable, who often tell them things they have never told anyone before. They confess they wish they had done things differently. They unburden themselves and divulge intimate details of family feuds.
As Dr Pemberton went on to say: What kind of reassuring words are there when a 70 year-year old man sits in front of you, pale and hollow-eyed telling you that he has wasted his life and that he cared more about money than the people around him?
Too late, must be amongst the two saddest words in the English language. There are few things more devastating than watching a person realise they have misjudged their priorities and it’s too late to change.
A woman recently won the legal right to refuse life-saving kidney dialysis. She had dedicated her life to money, possessions and self-indulgence. She had been married four times with each ending when the cash ran out. In her eyes, there was no point in life once the party lights had dimmed.
For those who wish to treat life seriously, I make no apologies for pointing you to what the Scriptures have to say:
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2 Corinthians 6:1-2 |
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We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For He saith, “I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”) KJV |
As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For He says, “In the time of My favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation. NIV |
Know this: Christ came to die in our place and we either accept the free gift of Salvation which He offers everyone, or we neglect it. Be warned though, neglecting it leads to the saddest words in the English language: TOO LATE!
Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end;
Yet days go by, and weeks rush on,
And before I know it a year has gone,
And I never see my old friend’s face,
For life is swift and a terrible race.
He knows I like him just as well
As in the days when I rang his bell
And he rang mine. We were younger then,
And now we are busy tired men:
Tired with playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.
“Tomorrow,” I say, “I will call on Jim,
Just to show that I’m thinking of him.”
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And the distance between us grows and grows.
Around the corner! – Yet miles away…
“Here’s a telegram, Sir…” “Jim died today.”
And that’s what we get, and deserve in the end:
Around the corner, a vanished friend.
Charles Hanson Towne
What do we say when the life that is gone is our own life, and the friendship that we neglected, and did not cultivate, is that of the Lord Jesus Christ?
He loved me,
and gave Himself for me.
All this I gave for thee,
What hast thou given for Me?