Cancer Blog #57
By Brian Zimmerman
Begun on July 31, 2021
Email: dyingman1@yahoo.com
My Dying Words
Entry #5 – The Bleakness of Hell
October 13, 2022
Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.”
Probably my favorite book by C.S. Lewis is “The Great Divorce.” I’ve read it a number of times and never fail to enjoy it. I won’t spoil the surprise if you haven’t read it (and you really should; it’s very short), but I was reminded of it the other morning as I stepped out the front door around 6:15am and began walking down our front sidewalk to collect the newspaper. We’re very early risers (often I’m up between 4 and 430. Between 5 and 6 is my sleeping in!), but the paper isn’t delivered till somewhere around 6am. So, at that time it was still pitch black outside, and the main light on our sidewalk and driveway was from the pole lamp beside them, which I had left on (I used to tell my patients in my PT days – “Never walk in the dark when you’re older, inside your home or outside. Your vision gets bad as you age, and your balance gets worse.” I can’t count the number of people I saw who were injured because they had violated that simple rule). There weren’t many other lights on yet and I was struck by how dark outside my little circle of light the neighborhood was.
We’ve been thinking about getting a whole house generator (they are very expensive now). I’m not sure because of my illness and the side effects of my treatment drugs how well my body would respond to say 3 days without power. Our lives pretty much depend on electricity to our home. We’d have water and almost nothing else. It’s stressful going without power for an extended time and I’m concerned how my body would handle it, especially as I’m on a daily dose of prednisone (which as I believe I’ve explained before prevents my adrenal glands from producing the main hormone (cortisol, which looks like prednisone to my brain), my body needs to cope with stress or even good stimulation such as having a dinner party).
Anyway, I’m walking down the sidewalk and thinking about Lewis’ book and home generators and how if we got one, we’d probably be the only little circle of light in the neighborhood and how that was similar to the beginning of his book. It struck me that that scenario is really a good picture of our lives in this world. God has given us light and comfort even in this world and yet so many of our neighbors live in darkness now and possibly for the rest of eternity, experiencing a dim and sad existence. We should never forget their current situation or their future fate, and pray regularly for those we know, and be a lamp and salt, sharing the joy and light of that one who came to be the great light, and will return one day to be the sunrise of the world, dispelling all that darkness we now see around us.
Next: The Cure for Anxiety