A doctor comes out to his patient after surgery and tells him: "I have some good news and bad news."
"What's the bad news, Doc?"
"We cut off the wrong leg in surgery."
"That's terrible. What's the good news?"
"It looks like your other leg is getting better."
These jokes always bother me a little because of the almost gleeful way in which doctors dispense the most depressing information. Of course, they are just jokes, but I know how hard it is to share bad test results and how hard I work in these moments not to steal hope away.
It is in these dark-as-midnight moments that people need a little light. It is never a joke that lifts their spirits, for jokes lose their funniness in these events, but hope. Somehow, I have to convey that I will not give up and that I will do whatever I can to help them through this time.
Most of all, I turn to prayer.
For, even when medical science holds little hope and when every moment feels like another good bye, there is One who offers light in the darkness, One who promises that we will not have to cross Jordan alone, if we are His.
When I have only bad news and worse news to impart, Jesus holds out hope. That's just what this dark world needs most.
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