Don't Wait To Get Sick

Clutching my stack of patient mail, I double checked the room number with the number on the envelope, knocked and entered the room. She was sitting upright in her hospital bed with a blanket drawn up across her chest and her arms laying outside the blanket with the IVs infusing the chemotherapy agents needed to fight the cancer trying to take over her body. I told her someone had sent her a card and would she like me to read it to her. I read the card and told her who it was from. Barely acknlowledging the card she tiold me she was so cold and could I bring the blanket over her arms. Very carefully so as not to dislodge any of the IV sites, I tucked her arms under the blanket and arranged it around her shoulders. Then she asked me if I could give her a drink. I held the cup with the bendable hospital straw to her lips and watched her as she drank.
Dependence, vulnerability and helplness are what draw me to sick people. Illness is one of the great equalizers in life. There are no penthouse hospital suites and everyone wears the same extremely unattractive clothing. No one gets to eat the finer food off of the menu. People who are ill must allow other people to serve them, sometimes for the most basic needs such as getting a drink of water or covering up their arms with a blanket, even to the point of needing help just to breathe. Ill people rarely wear the masks so many of us try to hang on to so tightly in our day to day lives. I wish we could all live lives where we show our vulnerability, dependence on God and each other and get rid of the walls we build up around our heart and the masks we put over our faces. In her book "Feathers from My Nest," Beth Moore writes as an acknowledgment to her family "Thank you for sharing my conviction that transparency and vulnerability are worth the help and encouragement they lend to others." I really want to show that vulnerability and transparency as a healthy person - Healthy in body, mind and spirit. .

9/6/07 -- I originally wrote this in the summer of 2006. This lady was discharged home, but came back shortly after her discharge and eventually she could no longer fight her disease and passed away. I saw her only briefly that one day, but I won't forget her. She touched a spot in my heart that showed me what vulnerability looks like and I am thankful that God showed me this. Through her, I saw the hopelessness of my sin and my helplessness to save myself. Vulnerability, transparency, openness, and honesty are what we need to show each other and then we can grow together.

Thanksgiving:
1. The TIU volleyball team staying here tonight.
2. My friendship with Brenda.
3. Praying with Dena the other night.