The Solution

When human kind finds a problem, it immediately sets out to find its solution. If something is wrong, we have a drive to make it right. But what happens when you are confronted by something unfixable--unsolvable? How do you deal with a terrible cycle you are helpless to break?

Early this morning I was reading in the book of Colossians, when my quiet time was broken by the unmistakable sound of wailing--another death at the hospital. This is a common occurrence. I paused a moment, prayed for the family, and attempted to proceed with my reading, but the wailing grew in intensity until it could no longer be ignored. My meditation was completely halted. All I could hear was the anguished wailing as more and more people took up the cry. It was sobbing, repetitive and chilling in its despair. I didn't know who had died or why, but the wailing filled my heart with pain until it hurt. I was suddenly hit with a nameless guilt. Maybe I should have been over there helping. Maybe I could have done something. Maybe this death could have been prevented. However, this oppression lasted but a minute. Deep down I knew there was most likely very little I could have done. As medical professionals, we do all we can, but too often it just isn't enough. We give them blood, I.V. fluid, and what medications are available, yet it does not save them. The people come in too late. No amount of treatment can bring them back. The sense of helplessness and senselessness made me angry. I felt I couldn't listen to the hopeless wailing another minute without being able to do something to fix it. Oh how it hurt that I couldn't save this person from dying. I almost wished they would go somewhere far away to wail, so I wouldn't have to be continually confronted with my own inabilities to fix the system.

This place has a terrible cycle of disease and death. I, a trained medical professional, am helpless to stop this cycle. No matter how many hours worked, or pounds of medication given, or mighty heroic measures taken, the cycle continues. There’s no end in sight, humanly speaking. The never-ending-ness can be overwhelming.

There is one, and only one, solution capable of stopping this vicious cycle of death. It is Jesus Christ coming back to earth. Only then will children stop dying of malaria or having their hands scalded for stealing food. Only then will killer epidemics be ended and wailing be no more.

I want to hasten Christ coming in any way I can. I can’t wait for this cycle to be broken and this problem to be eternally solved.