Birthdays

So, last week I had a birthday.  I had a great plan.  I scheduled the day off work.  I was going to sleep in, do some shopping, a few projects around the house, and meet my husband for a birthday dinner.

As would be my luck, the state survey team showed up at my work place two days before my birthday for their annual inspection...and this year the process was to take not one, but two weeks!  This meant all vacations cancelled, and 12 hour work days all week x 2.  Yikes!

I immediately began to feel sorry for myself.  I decided to buck up and just deal with it, and so I did.  God blessed me that day more than I could have imagined:

One of my patients called me into his room after lunch.  He said, "Terri!  Come here!  I need you to take me to the dining room.  I have an announcement to make."  I said I would be glad to take him and asked him what it was about.  He said, "you'll know soon enough."  On the way to the dining room, he mentioned that he didn't get any pie for lunch, when everyone else had pie.  I wondered if he were going to lodge a formal complaint about the pie.  I really had no idea what I was in for. 

When we got to the dining room, I noticed that one of the surveyors was just outside the door to the dining room.  I was really worried now.  Whatever he was going to say, she was sure to hear it. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement to make," he yelled out.  Several patients were still enjoying their lunch and looked up.  "Our beloved leader has a birthday today, and I wanted to make sure she knows how much we all appreciate her."  A gentleman at the first table started to sing, "Happy Birthday...," but this patient said, "I'm not finished," and he cleared his throat.  "Many happy returns on the day of thy birth, and may the Father protect you on Earth with a beautiful birthday in heaven."  Then came clapping, cheers, and a room full of tears. 

I will cherish this moment always.

The Narrow Path

Our sermon at church this week really hit home.  Our pastor made several points that easily could have been sermons in thier own standing.  One such point stuck me right where I am right now.  On the screen, he showed a graphic of two arrows:  one skinny arrow pointing up, and a second, fat arrow pointing down.  This was in reference to the two paths that we may chose to follow in life:  (Matthew 7:13, 14) "¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  The pastor then physically illustrated walking in one direction, along the narrow road that leads to heaven.  He explained that it is a long journey.  We aren't going to get there all at once.  Sometimes it is really hard.  We may even take a few steps forward, and slide a few steps back, but we are still facing the same general direction and moving toward the goal.  It is when we stop, look over at the other road, and say, "this way is too hard.  I think I want to go with them" and turn and leave the road and join the others on the wide path that leads away from God that we are in trouble.

I was so glad for that illustration.  The narrow path is hard.  Really, really hard sometimes.  And sometimes it is really lonely, especially when most of our closest companions choose the wide path.  And the journey takes us to places that we often do not want to go, where the choices are hard to make.  God often makes us do hard work to learn the most important lessons of this life.  If we need to learn patience, he sends us frustration upon frustration, until we learn to lean on Him and patiently wait. (And for control-freaks like me, that means God needs to be patient, too).  If we need to learn to be more loving, he sends more "unloveable" people into our lives.  By this I don't mean that anyone is unloveable, but that there are people who rub us the wrong way and seem to bring out the worst in us, and we really have to work hard not to judge them and to find their redeeming qualities.

For example, I have a patient at work whose family is driving me crazy!  No matter what I do, it is always wrong.  And they complain every single day!  A few of the concerns are valid.  Many are unrealistic.  Every time I see their number come up on my caller ID, or I see them in the hallway, I have to pray before I talk to them.  One day, while one of the members was on the phone with me, I couldn't take it any more.  She was at first complaining about her family member's care.  Then it turned to her own personal problems:  health, financial, family, etc.  Finally, I asked God under my breath, "What can I do?"  Then, before I could think, out of my mouth came this:  "It sounds like you have a lot on your plate right now.  I know I can't do anything to fix most of it, but there is one thing I can do.  Can I pray with you?"  She agreed, and I prayed with her right there on the phone. She was grateful and thanked me, then hung up.  (Those of you that know me know that I am uncomfortable praying out loud and don't normally volunteer to do it.)  I would love to report that this was the answer and it fixed everything, but the next day everything was just the same.  I obviously have more learning to do...and a lot more praying!

The point I learned today is that even though the straight and narrow path is hard, sometimes seemingly impossible, that it is not about struggling uphill on a drudging march toward heaven.  God knows that I can't do it on my own.  I am the one that doesn't always get that it is not all up to me.  He points me in the right direction, and he is right there with me to pick me up every time I fall down.  He pushes me when I need help, and he carries me when I just can't do it any longer.

And the wide, easy path?  Well, I've been down that road before, and believe me, it is harder than it looks!