INSPIRATIONAL STORY: Every now and then, life may put us in a Lions’ Den, a dangerous and risky unpleasant situation above our natural powers of safety and security.

By Dr. Bola John 
Biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA.   For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635


Recently, I have been highly inconvenienced by the awful smell of a dead rat or something like that was apparently coming from the sealed hanging ceiling of the sitting room where I live or from somewhere else.   Since I do not allow pests of any type in my home, it has been a mystery.  It was not possible to sit and watch TV or eat on the adjacent dining table. It was life-disrupting. I will forever hate dead rats. There is nothing good about dead rats.

Life may bring us unpleasantness every now and then.  Taking care of the terminally ill can be unpleasant, a great inconvenience, and a distraction from normal life.  Even if the sick is kempt, the family member still needs patience and endurance and needs to give time, if not love, in order to attend to him or her.

If the sick is unkempt, it is even more difficult to care for him or her and the situation is something that we would commonsensically try to avoid.  Beyond commonsensical considerations,there are also spiritual considerations.

The story of Daniel in the Lion’s den is one of those great stories that I personally find very inspiring.  Daniel was a handsome man, unblemished, well favored, proficient in wisdom, smart and knowledgeable, understanding science and literature, insightful, ten times brighter than all the King’s magicians and astrologers,a visionary with an extraordinary spirit and whom the King promoted into a great man, rich, and ruler over Babylon. Not surprisingly, he was betrayed by the tricky legalism of evil rivals. They studied his habits and put in place laws to bring him down. The fine man Daniel was cast into the deadly blions’ den. The story tells us that God delivered him while he was stuck in that unavoidable condition. From what?  The lions fangs and claws, the strong body odor of the wild animals, the sight and stench of animal feces and urine on the ground, disgusting decaying remains of fleshy food thrown to the lions, bacteria galore, unsightly mold, evil viruses and other microbes, punishing ticks, ambushing spiders, menacing flies, irritating mosquitoes, and other disease carrying or harmful biting insects, cockroaches and their droppings, horrible dung beetles, dangerous scorpions – in the dark, hot den.  Maybe my imagination just went wild. What a contrast it must have been from Daniel’s normal life of affluence.

Every now and then, life may put us in a Lions’ Den, a dangerous and risky unpleasant situation above our natural powers of safety and security.  The environment of the terminally ill can be that bad sometimes and the healthy family member may have to be there to take care of the sick loved one.  It can be very challenging for the healthy, fine, family member. A helpless incapacitated sick human being poops, urinates, may smell, may vomit or salivate and drool, may cough, may sneeze, may groan, may agitate, may have open wounds with pus or blood, may soil clothes and bedding, may look detestable, etc.  Without enough time to spare, knowledge of medical treatments, love, or faith, it may be best to hands off and hand the terminally ill family member over to hospice care.

Long time after one of my aunties died, her daughter, my cousin was telling me how happy she was to know that she had her mother live in her house for some time while her mother was sick, close to her death.  There are people we should not abandon when they need us.  These days with our modern life styles and environments, many elderly people do have some kind of illness prior to death.  Parents, spouses, friends, and other persons that we not only should love but who we also owe so much to should be able to count on us if they end up with such demise as terminal illness.

To have them around may be a risk to our own health and the health of other members of our household.  To have them around may be a costly distraction from our businesses and normal life.  To have them around may expose our homes to visitors who may not normally have access to our homes but want to see the ill person. We may need to hire a private nurse or doctor to attend to the sick in our home for an unpredictable length of time.  

Thus the decision to care for a terminally ill may be a tough one to make.  I know one family where the task was shared by several wealthy brothers.  Grandma spent time here and then there and then here and then there. She actually enjoyed the final years of her life even though she was not healthy during those years.  Parents, spouses, friends, and other loved ones do deserve to be spoiled by affection, and if they are sick, why not a little bit more love and affection?

Then there are cases that we really feel that they cannot be kept at home for various reasons: too much time needed; too risky; too delicate; professional environment needed; too depressing or sad for others; too horrific; and so on. Then we need a last resort.

Next we shall discuss terminal illness and miracles and if not miracles, hospice care for the terminally ill.