Helplessness

I'm just not having much success at coming up with new reflections.  I opened the blog to try to write one last night but finally gave up.  I guess tonight I just want to spend a little time talking about something that came up at work today.  I was talking with one particularly distraught mom.  Her very young (weeks old) daughter was being worked up to rule out sepsis (bloodstream infection with additional features), and it had been a nightmarish day.  In addition to the various normal blood tests required, a lumbar puncture (aka spinal tap) is necessary for the workup, so between all the testing and the fact that her daughter was in the emergency room and simply waiting for a bed to be ready before being admitted to the hospital, mom was pretty much beside herself.  And the worst of it, she acknowledged, was the sense of helplessness, the realization that she couldn't do anything to make this better for her baby.  And she had no choice but to accept that; there were really no alternatives.

I think most of us feel helpless from time to time, if not more frequently.  We see things playing out, we see how much pain certain events are causing, but we are powerless to stop or alter them.  Sometimes we try anyway, knowing that we will fail, knowing that we'll probably do more harm than good, simply because we cannot bear to feel helpless.  But I also think that Lent is about an example of helplessness that became the basis for human salvation.  If He chose to become helpless on the cross for our sake...maybe there's a lesson for us there?  Just a thought.

Anyway, that's all for me tonight.  Hope everyone's doing well...till next time, peace and God bless!