A great day to reach out

By Jeff Becraft

Last Saturday, I got up and I just didn’t feel that great. Something was off. I thought maybe it was my sugar levels were off or I was overly tired or something.

Then I got up on Sunday and I could tell that something was definitely not right. Now I had the aches and the pains, a low grade fever, and I knew I was battling something for real. Those symptoms hovered around for several days. I began thinking, “Well, I must have the flu, since there’s a fever involved and whatnot,”… and that’s what I was telling people.

Well, here I am in day six of this. The symptoms aren’t horrendous, and the fever is gone… but I have just really been abnormally tired. I was like, “What is this tiredness?”

Well, I finally took a COVID test, and bingo, there it was. Now, none of my symptoms changed at all. When I took that test, I didn’t all of a sudden have a burst of energy.

But there was a small feeling of hope.

Where did that come from?  It came from simply knowing what was going on.

Oftentimes, people are facing a lot of things in life, and there’s no answer… and it’s that not knowing that can be such a heavy weight on us.

This has been a very mild version of COVID compared to what I had back in 2022 and I know that this too will pass. I have friends that are facing serious cancer. I have friends who have kids who are facing serious cancer. I have friends whose spouses have cancer. I have a friend whose wife just fell and broke her hip this week. I lost another friend to death this past week whom I had not seen in a long time. There are all kinds of people facing so many serious things. I certainly have no room to be whining about not feeling well and missing out on some normal routines for several days.

But we all know such people who are facing serious circumstances.… and it might even be us. Today would be a great day to reach out to them and encourage them. Not knowing what is happening can be draining.

One thing we do know – none of us are promised tomorrow. So, whatever can be said or done, today is the day to do it.

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].