“Clear! Clear! What do you have there? Broken bones in upper right arm, fracture of the left leg and a punctured vein… What do you have there?” were all the words I kept hearing while different stretchers came rolling past me as I stood frozen at the entrance of the Hospital. “Hello Madam! Are you going in or are you waiting for someone? You have been here for a while and haven’t moved at all” A nurse called out to me, awakening me from my mild shock.
Giving her a forced smile and thanking her for the rude-awakening, I began my journey through the hall to access the stairs. As at then, I was partially blanked-out to remember that I just walked past the elevator due to the effect of the painful sights I had just beheld. I found myself walking through every hallway totally disoriented in my mind. As I walked down Hall 5, another stretcher came rolling towards me, bearing a body covered from head to toe. It was then I remembered I was on the theatre floor which was two floors above where I was going.
Settling in and trying hard to get my thoughts together, I discovered my mind kept replaying and replaying the event of the day. “Two stretchers, two bodies, two destinations. One to get a solution, the other to be done away it”. Who are my stretcher bearers?
The scenario of the paralyzed man getting his miracle because his stretcher-bearers would not settle for less throws a radiant light on who should be our stretcher-bearers. Another scenario is that of the man who was being carried to his resting place by what I call pallbearers. This one throws a much brighter light on the part we often overlook. Your stretcher bearers can never be your pallbearers.
According to Oxford dictionary, A Stretcher-bearer is person who helps to carry the sick or injured on stretchers, especially in time of war or at the scene of an accident. Meanwhile on the other hand, A pallbearer is a person helping to carry or officially escorting a coffin at a funeral. Many-a-times we mistaken these two to mean the same thing.
The world around you can be divided into these two categories. There are people who would do anything to make sure you don’t get to the top or even be better than them. They are in competition with every area of your life. Looking for every possible opportunity or loop-hole to tie a rope that would pull you off your goal. Many-a-times, they disguise as your stretcher bearers. Just like on the 5th floor that very day in the hospital, the fellow was wheeled out on a stretcher to be transferred to the pallbearers.
“Not long after that, Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, “Don’t cry.” Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, “Young man, I tell you: Get up.” The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother.” Luke 7:11-15 (MSG)
While reading these verses, I ask myself; didn’t the pallbearers see Jesus coming? Why did they have to wait for him to touch the coffin before they stopped? This is to tell you that these pallbearers would intentionally deviate from the part that would lead you to the top of your mountain. They would gradually tell you how many people had tried getting to where you want to go to and failed.
Are you a student? They would tell you how no one has ever passed that course.
Are you of age and still single? They would tell you of how many people your age are not married.
Are you expecting your children? They would tell you of people who are old and well stricken in age and don’t have children to call their own.
Are you aspiring to be great? They would manufacture all sorts of stories to tell you how lost you are in dreamland.
PALLBEARERS!!! is what they are called. Open your eyes, they are all around you. It would surprise you that its even that person you call FRIEND that is the pallbearer. The irony of it all is that they are very very easy to fish out. Scrutinize all your bearers… Not all have “stretcher” in front of them.
Oh how I love the military environment. Immediately a fellow soldier is down by a bullet or something else. He is immediately carried on a stretcher to a place where he can be attended to. If for any reason in the war a soldier is injured, you would see how he would be dragged by another soldier to the place of safety; even if they running for their lives. He would never leave him behind, even if he delays him. He keeps assuring him that he would be fine. They paint the best physical picture of who your stretcher-bearers should be.
Take time, sit and think about your bearers. You tell these people your dreams, your weakness, your strength and a host of other things. Are they bearing you to your place of breakthrough or defeat? If it’s the Former, they are your stretcher bearers, never fall off that stretcher. If it’s the latter, they are pallbearers. JUMP OFF that stretcher NOW!!!
Who are your STRETCHER BEARERS?
God bless you.
© Plenitude 2015
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