I think I’ve found the title of a book I need to write–Foot Race to Heaven.  I didn’t come up with the title.  My counseling intern, Diane Lewis, came up with the phrase or at least used it in a conversation with me in such a way that it really stuck. 

We were talking about the health challenges my parents have faced this fall.  My dad has fractured his back and then fell and bruised up his leg and knees a few weeks later.  My mom is losing her eye sight.  She has had an eye surgery this fall, then she experienced blood clots in her legs.  Diane made the comment that it sounded like my parents were in a foot race to get to heaven.  I agreed completely.  Not that I think they are going to die immediately, but Diane’s comment reframed for me what I am witnessing with my parents. 

My parents prepared me well for this stage in my life.  They were wonderful caregivers to my grandparents and included us as part of the family team that cared for my grandparents.  They aren’t done teaching lessons though.  Being with my parents as they have faced these health challenges has been a wonderful time of encouragement and conversation.  There have been difficult conversations where we have had to talk about options if my parents weren’t able to continue to live independently.  There have been humorous conversations about aging and hospital care.  There have connecting conversations about the lives we have shared as a family. 

Funny. . . if you had told me four months ago that all the events that have happened this fall were going to happen, I would have guessed I’d be stressed and completely overwhelmed.  I’m not stressed or overwhelmed.  Thanks to God’s grace and my parents’ wonderful hearts, I am encouraged and inspired. 

Mostly I am grateful that my parents have run a good race and fought the good fight.  Now as they near the finish line in their foot race to heaven, it will be my honor to walk with them, to encourage them, and if necessary, carry them. 

There could be no greater honor.

As we were driving home last night my nephew, Jalapeno Hal, told me that sometimes he worries about whether anybody really likes him.  Thinking I was offering words of wisdom, I told him that it was more important for us to worry about what God wants us to do and how we can help other people get to heaven than it is to worry about whether other people like us or not.

There was a prolonged silence from the back of the vehicle.  I thought Jalapeno Hal was taking to heart what I was saying. 

A hesitant voice finally responded from the back seat, “Well Doc, I guess if God wants me to kill people so they can go to heaven, I can do that, but I don’t want to.”

I immediately laughed and explained to Jalapeno Hal that when I said we need to do what we can help other people get to heaven, I didn’t mean that we had to kill other people.  I went on to explain to him that what I meant was that we needed to encourage other people to do what God wants them to do.

Ultimately, I learned a lesson in communication.  Some times what we think we are saying is not what other people are hearing. 

I guess there is more than one way to help other people get to heaven. I just think encouraging them to do what God wants them to do might make it easier for us to get to heaven as well as them.