By Rev Lyndan Syiem
Like everyone else these days, I spend my mornings reading the news and the numbers. Which as you all know, is often very sad and depressing. That’s why I make it a point not to begin my day with the news but with Scripture and prayer. This is what gives me the strength and courage to face another day, to minister in prayer over the phone and WhatsApp to dozens who call and text me every day.
I’ve never been this busy as a Pastor before, counselling and praying for people. Everyone is alarmed, even panicked right now, over this sudden surge of infections and deaths. Even the COVID-Sceptics and Vaccine conspiracy theorists are no longer confident of their old, entrenched positions. They can no longer deny the reality of the graphic, televised funerals being conducted by pall-bearers in white PPE suits.
Amidst widespread anxiety and despair over what will happen with this Second Wave, what hope can a recovering COVID 19 patient offer from his hospital bed? There is so much that one can offer, if only one just reaches out to people with empathy, love and practical advice. Empathy is available when one has gone through great suffering and comes out refined by the desire to help others in need.
Love is frankly supernatural, it comes from above; one can only be a humble recipient and a willing channel. Practical advice is not available unless you have gone through the disease yourself or have been a caregiver. We have many such people in our midst, listen to them when they speak. They may not always be able to articulate clearly, but learn from their stories of fighting the illness and winning because of faith and hope.
If you really desire to offer hope to people who are suffering, please start by becoming properly informed with true science and not with the fake scientists out there on the internet. The sine qua non of true science is peer-review and being published in reputed journals. Even in this mad scramble amidst the COVID crisis, we must never sacrifice quality research and empirical verification.
Unfortunately there is now a veritable industry of self-styled scientists, some of whom even dare speak in the name of Jesus Christ, who mix a percentage of truth with a fatal dose of error. The sad thing is that all this pseudo-science is being peddled on religious social media and people are so lacking in spiritual discernment that they will believe anything. But let’s talk reality. If you, God-forbid! God-forbid! fall ill to COVID 19 and develop complications, who will you go to? The pseudo-scientists and anti-vaxxers or a real doctor in a real hospital?
That is why if you really desire to be of practical help to people, you must first learn to respect the doctors, the consultants, the experienced nurses. I know that you have a really fast internet connection, but it was the doctor who spent 5-6 years in medical school, plus six more years doing his MD and DM. I accept that there are gaps in knowledge in the medical profession, especially over this virus and the body’s inflammatory response, that’s causing all these pulmonary and other problems. And while our hard-pressed doctors and specialists are always learning, always researching, we must respectfully support them in prayer and in public regard.
Next is to respect our health care professionals. I deeply respect everyone who is a frontline worker, but there is just no comparison with the doctors, nurses, ward staff and technicians who physically touch and serve a COVID patient, who is rushed into the ICU with heaving chest, raging fever and agonizing gasps for breath. I personally know that many of these health professionals have families, small children, and aged parents with comorbidities, yet they willingly lay down their own bodies on the line for us patients.
Which is why as I lay semi-conscious, that verse kept coming to mind: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” I have never met Mother Teresa in her famous blue-bordered saree, but I have actually met her compatriots dressed in white PPE with blue piping at Bethany Hospital. All of you recovered COVID patients have also met these wonderful angels of God in the many hospitals all over our state of Meghalaya, and across the world.
Hope from a hospital bed does not mean glossing over the errors and blunders of our leaders and people. From all accounts, the major cause for the current spike in Meghalaya is due to irresponsible returnees who furnished false names and false telephone numbers, and who never quarantined themselves. There will be no charges, no arrests, no tracing of subsequent infections and deaths. But frankly, you will one day have to answer before a higher tribunal, unless you make your peace with the Almighty, and your personal restitution to our deeply-scarred society.
For those responsible returnees who followed the rules, you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. For those of us who tested positive, even though we immediately informed all our contacts, there is regret, sorrow and yes, a deep sense of guilt. I admit that it is a cross I will bear for a long, long time. Please don’t patronize us and say “don’t blame yourself.” It is just too early to comment on the final resolution.
Hope from a hospital bed sees the leaders of the government, of the dorbar shnongs, of the various social and religious organizations, struggling against impossible odds in finance, organization and finding volunteers for Corona Care Centres. It sees the selfishness and the pettiness of human nature. Yet it also sees responsible, large-hearted men and women in government, in local dorbars and in various religious bodies.
Hope for better things on earth is by definition inclusive. It cannot be limited to one’s own community, one’s own culture, one’s own religion, but must include others, especially those not our own. Hope sees and publicly acknowledges so much good in the many communities and groups that make up this beautiful state of Meghalaya.
In the amazing Providence of God, a hospital patient whose humble writings sparked hope in the suffering and the depressed, suddenly becomes privy to information from all manner of sources. I cannot identify persons by name in this article, but God knows your selfless acts of service to society. The Scriptures clearly speak of rewards, not of heaven, but in heaven. While we sinners can never get to heaven except by the grace of God, Scripture also teaches that the Lord will never forget the humble services offered in his name.
A hospital bed changes your perspective of life and death. For someone who had experienced just a few OPD procedures before, a long hospital stay teaches that life is short and death is ultimately certain. But it also teaches that there is life beyond death, and there is so much meaning while we are still alive. Please allow this hospital patient a personal note that will edify and bless you dear friends. My wife lost her mother last year and our family is still in bereavement. My mother-in-law was among the kindest, gentlest, noblest women I have ever met; I loved her as I love my own mother.
In a deeply subjective experience that I can never fully explain, I reached very near to where my mother-in-law is, with Jesus. It was abundantly clear that she was very happy there. I also wanted to go with her but was sent back to earth, because there was another, stronger, desire within me to complete my life’s mission. As a Pastor, it is my duty to counsel and pray for the bereaved. But I have not been able to really minister to my own wife. Until I had this strange experience and shared the story over and over with her. I now share this story publicly dear friends, in the hope that it will bless you and give you hope amidst a despairing world, and also hope beyond this despairing world.
Email: [email protected]