The Morphing of Mabel

I am back. I have been given the privilege of leading the Men's Ministry at Westlink Christian Church and have been spending my study time working on where the Lord would have His glory in His men at WCC. During my reading and viewing DVDs, I keep running into John Ortberg, who is a very good writer. My favorite story by him will be shared in the next few posts. Sit back and let Mabel give you a new lesson in 'Loving Jesus!'

From the book by John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted
A Case study: The Morphing of Mabel
It can be helpful to see how God brings about transformation in the lives of ordinary people, so I would to introduce you to a friend of a friend of mine. Her name is Mabel. This is what my friend, Tom Schmidt, wrote:
“The state-run convalescent hospital is not a pleasant place. It is large, understaffed, and overfilled with senile and helpless and lonely people who are waiting to die. On the brightest of days it seems dark inside, and it smells of sickness and stale urine. I went there once or twice a week for four years, but I never wanted to go there, and I always left with a sense of relief. It is not the kind of place one gets used to.
"On this particular day I was walking in a hallway that I had not visited before, looking in vain for a few who were alive enough to receive a flower and a few words of encouragement. This hall­way seemed to contain some of the worst cases, strapped onto carts or into wheelchairs and looking completely helpless."As I neared the end of this hallway, I saw an old woman strapped up in a wheelchair. Her face was an absolute horror. The empty stare and white pupils of her eyes told me that she was blind. The large hearing aid over one ear told me that she was almost deaf. One side of her face was being eaten by cancer. There was a discolored and running sore covering part of one cheek, and it had pushed her nose to one side, dropped one eye, and distorted her jaw so that what should have been the corner of her mouth was the bottom of her mouth. As a consequence, she drooled con­stantly. I was told later that when new nurses arrived, the supervi­sors would send them to feed this woman, thinking that if they could stand this sight they could stand anything in the building. I also learned later that this woman was eighty-nine years old and that she had been here, bedridden, blind, nearly deqf, and alone,for twenty-­five years. This was Mabel.

More tomorrow. Amen.