Philippians 4:8
Good News Translation
(GNT)
8 In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that
are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure,
lovely, and honorable.
Shortly after I began teaching at La Sierra University,
Hilmer Besel came into my office. He was very worried. His wife Lily was in
hospital and I knew things were not going well for her. She was naturally very
short and her osteoporosis had stolen another 6 inches from her height. Besides
that about everything else in her body seemed to have given up. They had her lying
in bed with tubes protruding out of almost every orifice. She couldn’t speak,
drink, or eat. Everything hurt and she was miserable. She wrote a little note
to her beloved husband and requested that they remove all the tubes and let her
die in peace. Hilmer asked me what I would do if my wife had made that request.
Lily was a lovely woman. She was always interested in the
welfare of those about her. She was a pleasure to talk to. We all hated to see
her go. But who would keep such a lovely person alive in such unbearable
torture? Hilmer gathered their three daughters around her and prayed with her
and then they pulled all of the tubes out of her body and quit giving the life
preserving drugs. The doctors told the family that she would be dead in twenty
minutes.
Four days later she walked out of the hospital, delighted to
be free from most of those pains. She regarded the next four years as a gift
from God. When I would see her she was always interested in my well being and
expressed no complaints. She had not been miraculously cured and her ailments
finally took her about four years later. I remember visiting her again just
before she died. She knew her time was short and she expressed her concern for
Hilmer. Would I look after him especially when he needed something? I promised
her I would.
Hilmer had founded the mathematics and computer science
departments at La Sierra University. He ate lunches at the university
cafeteria, so he would come by my office almost every day. He spent his time
studying scripture, working on an elementary proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem, or
finishing his copper roof. He would report on progress and often seek my help in
one or another of his current projects. Like his wife, he never dwelt on the
failings of his fellow humans. He lived a lonely life, but never complained. At
his lunch meals, students and faculty would often spend time with him learning
from his wisdom. He outlived Lily by almost twenty years.
Thank You Lord
for people who love to redirect our thoughts to joys, beauties, and topics
beyond our meager existence.
[1]
Hilmer Besel at a Departmental Christmas Party in 2012
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