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I stretch, groan, wake up to my alarm, which is set way too early for a Sunday morning. Did I really volunteer to pick up extra work hours this weekend?…wwwwhyyyy?? So I get myself out the door, and on the drive in to the hospital, I get this warm feeling in my middle, the closer I get to work. It has something to do with the quiet of the streets on a Sunday morning, the sun rising, and the knowing of what sorts of good things are going to happen within the next few hours. This is church for me, I remember.
This is the place where I get the most incredible soul feeding! It isn’t because giving of myself is so important, no. It is because I am a selfish being at my core, and I adore this feeling I get when I connect with another human on this level, and I simply must have more of it!!
I think of the last weekend that I worked. Mrs Stanich had just had her total hip replacement, and that day was the first day she would get out of her bed and take a few steps.
“Oohh….no, I can’t…I just can’t” Mrs Stanich pleaded for us to come back later.
“Now, Mrs Stanich, the doctor says we have to try this morning, and I promise you it wont hurt your operation. You will be a little bit sore, but that’s okay,” the physical therapist explained.
“No…no, I can’t. I’m not ready”
“Mrs Stanich,” I got on my knees to look at her eyes. I could see she was afraid, but I knew if she would look at me, I might be able to reach her, “these exercises are going to help you get home sooner. Will you try with us? Will you do it for me? C’mon let’s try, we’ll do it together.” She nodded, still feeling cautious, but I knew I had reached her. I was exhilarated, and as I glanced over at her grown daughter who was with her, I could sense that she was feeling it too.
I knew enough not to let her leg cross over the other, so I took my position under her right shoulder, the therapist on the other side, and we would help her stand inside the walker. “Now you are going to hold your walker, and Sarah and I are going to be walking right beside you. You’re going to be just fine,” the therapist comforted her patient.
We slowly, very slowly took Mrs Stanich to the door of her room and turned and came back to the side of her bed. I could tell, June wanted to stand up and cheer, but instead told her mom how proud she was of her. Mrs Stanich was beaming. We sat her back in her bed, removed the walker to the other side of her room where it would stay until her next therapy session.
“Are you two coming back again today? Please say you are coming back,” the frail woman pleaded.
“Now Sunday is only one session per day, but your therapist will be back tomorrow, and you will be in very good hands, we promise.”
As I left the room, I had the most gratifying feeling inside of me. There is nothing for me to complain about when the greatest accomplishment of the day for this brave woman was making her way across the room and back. If ever there was a Christ consciousness, this was it. This was my best church time, where my soul was fed – no, where it feasted!
New Living Translation (©2007)
“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
*Names have been changed, for patient privacy.
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