Motivational Mondays: What Happens When You Open Up to Receive the Help Sent To You

Photos by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, March 4, 2025

So, I went to the hospital in December on a pneumonia scare -- didn't have pneumonia, but I did find out what was really going on by the time I was in the emergency room in January ...

February: the pneumonia scare had been followed by a concern about cancer, so I have been walking around San Francisco General Hospital getting all kinds of tests. As I was coming out of one of them, I saw the above piece of art, and then the message left by the artist.

This struck me to the bottom of my soul, for had it been walking pneumonia I would have survived because I was listening to the people who heard serious trouble and insist I go to the hospital. Because it was critically severe asymptomatic anemia, it was found out, and that was also why I was also running around doing bevies of procedures and tests to find out what had caused the anemia and to rule out cancer.

This statement struck me so hard, from a cancer survivor who had been much further down the road that I might have been on ... she had found the family around her at the hospital, those healing hands that she needed.

I found myself wondering, because I am a Christian, and the Bible does say "The earth is the Lord's and the FULLNESS thereof." Fullness ... abundance ... there in an abundance of wisdom and people all around us to share that wisdom with us ... I found myself wondering ... do we miss this reality because of the distractions and busyness many of us find ourselves in. It's Monday. Most of us are back to work, and it is a loud, busy world. Hardly a good time for listening, yet paying attention to this is key to getting the help and love necessary to heal. I take a notebook as a journal to use on breaks when I commute, and I stay seeking a walk and some sunshine to just quiet down and listen ... to God, and thus also knowing when He is using someone else to bring blessing into my life.

I did not have pneumonia, and I do not have cancer. The anemia, though, was coming to the point when it could have quietly killed me. But I listened, and found the love and help I needed, and am now healing. I know it's Monday, but I encourage us to find a quiet moment for gratitude, reflection, and listening ... there's more abundance, love, and blessing around us than we know, if we listen!