Heartsick

3/23/11

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)

I’ve learned a little something as I’ve been in this “unhealthy” waiting room. Unfulfilled expectations can be crippling or at least disconcerting.

The doctor would call with results the first of the week----I’ve had no messages.

Is Wednesday the first of the week?

When I talk with an intermediary (nurse) and she says the reports indicate “something” in left carotid artery. She says medicine would be called in to handle it. No pharmacy has called to tell me that I have an RX waiting.

I could go on belaboring the point but that would be futile. Doctors are so-o-o busy. I know that. Someone has to run interference or they’d never get to go home. But I’m learning the importance of our words. Sometimes words bring hope and when there is no follow through, disappointment can be great. Maybe even devastating depending on the emotional stability of the one “let down.”

Think about children. Do adults “promise” them events that raise their hopes only to be disappointed again and again---sometimes to the point of disillusionment? Maybe the reasons were valid. (like a busy doc). Maybe working overtime was valid to the adult but didn’t ring true to the child. Maybe their reasons were just excuses.

Do you (I) do what we say we’re going to do? Do you (I) glibly tell someone we’ll give them a call and promptly forget that intention. Or did we really intend it? Was it just a mannerly thing we say in the South?

I think it’s important to back up our words with actions so that we don’t litter life’s pathways with “heartsick “ people.