My Alzheimer’s Is In Remission…

Sunday, March 30, 2008

My Alzheimer’s is in Recession!!! Current mood: animated Category: Religion and Philosophy My Alzheimer’s Is In Remission… Have you ever known someone with Alzheimer’s? If you have, then you know what a terribly debilitating disease it is. My Great Uncle had it, and basically died of it. When we would go and see him, he never would recognize who we were; not even my Dad who was one of his favorite nephews. We would sit with him the first 10 or 15 minutes of every visit going over with him the name of his sons, and then the fact that my Dad was one of their sons, and I was his son. Then, occasionally, a lucent few moments would come over Uncle George, and you could just see the relief and understanding in his eyes. However, always just underneath his joy at having a little coherent time with his family; was a deep sadness because he knew his clear state of mind was only temporary. It still breaks my heart to think of Uncle George that way, and most of the time I DON’T think of him that way – I think instead of the times we had when he was healthy. Do you ever wonder why we get so emotional when we really come in contact with God? I think it was Paul who wrote that this life is like a reflection of the life to come. I don’t personally think that is even a close description of the chasm that is between this life and the next. We are so entangled in the things of this world, that I believe at best, we could be described most of the time as having Spiritual Alzheimer’s. Think about it, God is in and around His creation all of the time, but how often do we recognize Him? Most of the time, He has to sit us down and explain who He is and how everything we know and "possess" came into being because of Him. We are in a perpetual state of spiritual confusion and disorientation. If we weren’t we would be walking around with something akin to the countenance of Moses when he came back from seeing the passing Glory of God – because we would see God all around us, too. I had a few coherent moments with God lately. I think preparing for and praying for the revival put me as much in touch with God as the revival messages themselves did. And when I had those lucid moments with God, when my mind and heart touched Him; amidst the joy, I wondered why I found myself weeping and feeling an underlying sadness. After much introspection, I discovered that the sadness came from the realization that those moments of spiritual clarity when I came close to the GLORY of God were only temporary, fleeting glimpses – brief moments of understanding of how "in control" God is, and how trivial everything else seemed in His presence. Just the knowledge that I would soon sink back down into my Spiritual Alzheimer’s and away from that glory was a damper on the experience itself. But, then, I find a residual joy from those experiences also. Just stopping from time to time in my everyday life to recall the joy of being in the presence of God makes me smile. Then, to realize that one day we will go to reside in the very presence of His 500 billion watt GLORY 24/7 for eternity. That those brief glimpses of God’s glory that we catch on earth, will be just another day in Heaven – that gives me the kind of joy that keeps me going through this fog of life. It also makes me strive to walk closer to Him every day so that those glimpses come more and more often. Hopefully, it won’t take another "revival" for me to keep my Alzheimer’s in remission!!