Do you know what it means to suffer?

a Stodghill Says So blog:

It was one of those rare times when you couldn't ask for a single thing that would make life better. The brutal fighting in and around the town of Mortain was over and that meant the Battle of Normandy was over. More war lay ahead but at the moment all that mattered was the warm sunlight falling on a grassy hillside and the quiet that seemed so tangible you could reach out and touch it, store a little of it away in your pockets.
Then a chaplain came walking by, a hellfire and brimstone preacher who saw us as a captive audience. He stopped and looked us over with disgust.
"You're soft," he cried in a high-pitched voice laced with the hills and hollows of Appalachia. "You don't know what it means to suffer. You don't know what it means to be really hungry. Well I know and I'm going to tell you."
No one had informed him that some of the men sitting by themselves off to the left were from the 30th Infantry Division. For a week they had been surrounded on a hillside with nothing to eat but some unripe apples and hard potatoes they had dug from the ground.
So he told them and the rest of us who'd been eating high on the hog what it was like to be really hungry.
"After breakfast one morning I went for a walk in the woods and got lost. It was ten-thirty at night before I got back. All that time I didn't have a thing to eat. That's what it means to be hungry. That's what it means to suffer."
One by one the men from the 30th got up and walked away. One by one the rest of us did the same.
Well, it was nice while it lasted.

The [reacher should have read his bible closer and not jumped to judge the first troops he came across. Maybe he should have taken the time to look and listen to what the men had to say.

A chaplain once asked Audie Murphy why he never came to services. Murph's reply was, "I'll tell you what. You do the prayin', and I'll do the shootin."

Ann

What a hypocrite!
Too bad you had no rotten apples to toss his way.

l laughed until I about died. You need to write comedy, Dick.
I am sending this blog to Dave--it is priceless.

Dave loved it.

No one can truly understand suffering unless they have suffered.
We have preachers and teachers who talk theory. Teachers who instruct how to run a business without having run one is not as effective as the one with had hands-on experience.
A politician deciding what health care program is best for the citizens, who has never been without, is similar.

People who have "been there" have credibility in what they say. When Dick talks about war, he has credibility. When Carol and Alice talk about suffering from disease, they have credibility. The same is true for others on this forum who have "been there" on other subjects, i.e., poverty, discrimination, etc. They know of what they speak.

That is true, Abe. But it doesn't mean those who haven't been there don't have compassion or empathy.

I have always believed that walking among the poor, looking into the eyes of the hungry, feeling their feelings is important, not just preaching, giving handouts. We can learn a lot if we open ourselves to others' pain. When I went to work with the tornado survivors last year, I learned more about human strength and helping than I ever learned in classes. It is that sharing, that listening and "being with" that is important.

I wouldn't want anyone to go through what I have the past year. And the compassion of others has been priceless. I couldn't have made it on my own. But I didn't need others who had suffered, just those who cared.

Carol

Carol,

You'd have made it just fine. I discovered all I really needed was God and Dave.

Most of the church friends evaporated. So much for church folks. They are right beside you when they need money or have work to do, or need your house to have a party. I did better without them.

I don't miss their whining and complaining.

I knew I had had it with them when they came to the hospital to rile me against the proprosed head elder.

I moved my church membership. Now I don't have to fix anything.

I go to church as a visitor here.

My membership is in England --far enough away to suit me.

I know exactly what you mean, Alice. Last year in the hospital the chaplains were wonderful. But friends who constantly preach about going to church, how wonderful it is, are painful. Seriously. I just do my best.

I've known great priests and ministers. One time a priest and I worked an entire day to save a woman's life, not just for the day but for her natural lifetime. It wasn't about praying and saying she needed to go to church. It was about caring and working together. Those are the kind of church people I love.

Carol

I might as well let it all out. You can all tell something is eating me.

We vsited our dear friends. The lady has lost both of her legs.

They have no vast sums of money--they were advised to pay double tithe. They are doing it.

I am wondering what sort of a preacher could advise such a thing?



INCREDIBLE!

Alice,

I have no idea why I thought of this, but years ago after church the ladies and priest would take the altar flowers to the "shut-ins."

That lady needs to be given the altar flowers, not asked for funds.

The well-off give the funds for the needy. Some people just don't get it. Those people are the ones the funds are given for.

But, Alice, your love and caring is priceless.

I know the feelings however as I am still recovering from my weekend with religious friends. I said how bad I felt because I couldn't do what I could before. She said, "You must think of all you have." I said, "That's not the problem. The problem is I can't do things for other people like I could before. I appreciate everything I have."

I'm still reeling over the million dollars to investigate the nuns!

Carol

Carol,

I hope you are not a victim of the cancer cures.

Seems some church folks know everything about avoiding and curing cancer.

For PD, I was supposed to quit drinking milk and drink more water.

I was even told that if everything were right between God and me I would be healed of PD.

Oh well, they gave me something to laugh about.

Enough!

No, Alice. However, I have been sent all sorts of email warnings. Nothing like having more to be afraid of. I do pretty well already.

When we had our life threatening illness group, we said it wasn't about outcomes or cures, but about quality of life, dealing with what life had handed us. Some of our poor attendees had been given all sorts of advice and warnings. "If you are ill, you caused it from something you did not do right in your life." "If you get your life right, you will be healed." "Tithe, go to church, etc., and you will be well." We told them we weren't going to "preach" any of that. We had no answers to "why?"

There are many cruel unhelpful people out there.

Carol

Unbelievable that people can be that way. You are right, Carol, quality is what counts. You surely qualify for sainthood for merely putting up with people like that.

I will second that, Dick and include you in the sainthood group for not strangling that preacher.

Great examples. One talked about the trivial, one did something that was far from trivial.

Dick and Don,

You miliitary men know first-hand fear and suffering in the extreme. Carol and I may have diseases, but at least doctors try to cure us--not kill us,

Even all of the advice is well meant--Sorry I griped.
It is what I do best.

Well, one doctor wasn't trying very hard to keep me alive.

Carol

Carol

Neither were some of mine, but at least they weren't chasing me with guns trying to shoot me.

It may come to that, but so far it hasn't.

A family doctor, someone you get to know and who knows about you, is the best bet. Going to a clinic where you get the doctor on duty is impersonal and you're made to feel like some number in the daily routine. You can also be mis-diagnosed or prescribed medicine that can harm rather than help without your entire medical history. Just because they have "MD" behind their name does not make them an expert in all areas. Sometimes they operate like an auto mechanic trying one thing, and then if that doesn't work, trying something else. Each visit costs money in the trial and error method of discovery.

Abe,

There's a reason they call it "PRACTICING MEDICINE"!

At least if the machanic screws up and the car dies, you can buy another one!

And you know what they call the guy who graduates last in his class at medical school, don't you? They call him Doctor.

You are all corrrect.

However, even the most inept doctors are not actively trying to eliminate you.

The worst doctors I have had did not listen. If your doctor does not listen---find another one who will.

The world is full of doctors.

One of the worst I had was a personal friend. He sat on my boards and decided I was hale and hearty.

He preached attitude. I have had no attitude lectures since I forsook him.

I did not need an attitude lecture. I could have had a beautiful attitude and died before him.

He was so full of himself--if you did not feel well, "Just be glad you didn't have something worse.

What if you had cancer or heart trouble?" I almost had cancer and had a triple coronary by-pass. I was lucky, I didn' have him for a doctor by then.

He loved to hold before his patients how he would die of cancer. He didn't have cancer--fine point.

Someday he would get it and die. I wish I had thought to tell him if he had a good attitude, he would get over it. AW PHOOEY! My head does not work fast enough.

If all your doctor can do for you is preach--leave him.

Thank heavens there are doctors who listen and look.

Yes Don,
it seems that some keep practicing and never get it right.
With new technology, they type the symptoms into their PC and a lists of treatments appear. As Alice pointed out, many don't listen to the patient and jump to their own conclusions, write a prescription, and are ready for the next patient.
Then there are those who are dedicated to their work. They listen to the patient understanding that the patient seeks a sympathetic ear. Much of the healing begins with the patient's confidence in the doctor and the proposed remedy.