Friday Focus...she was coughing

The event I am going to share with you that happened to me on Thursday this week is not in anyway to puff me up.  So many times I am not responding to what I responded to that day.  I am in my own little world waiting for the next thing to happen.  I am selfish and silent when sympathy is needed.  I am so caught up with my agenda that I wondered why God called me to shepherd His flock.  This moment was a brief encounter with  sanity in God's world to point something out to me again.  In sharing what I did right is to show how many times I have done what is wrong.  God forgive me.

Thursday is my day off.  It was Tuesday but the church schedule was eating up that day so a switch was needed.  I joke that whatever day I pick as my day off, funerals and hospital visits will move to that day.  

So it was a Thursday, my day off, and I find myself in the entrance waiting room of our local hospital waiting to see a parishioner who was taken by ambulance to the emergency room.  I am on my phone when I look up because of something I heard and caught out of the peripheral vision of my eyes.

An elderly man wheeled up his wife in a hospital wheelchair alongside of me.  I assumed that he was hard of hearing because she was speaking loudly to him and having to repeat herself.  The conversation was about when their rides would get there.  He was not driving anymore and so he was waiting for his ride and she was headed back to the rehab center and she was waiting for the local bus system.  

The sight of his transportation through the entrance windows arrived first and an exchange of goodbyes happened leaving her alone in the wheelchair next to me.  Her head was tilted downward and I could feel the cold air hitting us as the automatic doors opened and closed with the foot traffic of the morning.  I thought to myself, "Those doors should be timed so that the cold air would be trapped in the vestibule instead of rushing into the main building area.  One set of automatic doors shouldn't open until the others are closed."

All was quiet and then she started to cough.  It was a deep cough.  She had a couple tissues to cover her mouth but I could see that they were well used.  When she was able to speak between times of coughing, she actually apologized to me and suggested that I might want to move.  This is when God took over and all glory goes to Him for my actions.  

I didn't move.  I waited for her coughing to stop again and asked if I could get her a drink of water.  I had noticed that there was a water cooler at the other end of the room.  When able, she nodded yes.  I put my phone back in my pocket, got up from my seat, walked the distance to retrieve a half cup of water and also asked at the volunteer desk for some tissues.  The eyes of the room were watching what was going on.

I had previously had a conversation with an able-bodied red coat volunteer who was now seated at the desk.  He is part of a Bible study that I co-lead at times.  We know each other.  The coughing of the elderly lady was loud enough that it was unavoidable and many coming or going from the hospital where making a wide berth around her.  

"Germs can fly, don't you know 

and I wouldn't want to catch what she's got."

As I returned to "my patient" who would be the age of my mother, I presume, if she was still alive, I offered the cup of water and the tissues.  She lifted her head to look at me.  I was willing to hold the cup to her lips if needed but she said thanks not only with her words but with her eyes.  Tears were forming.  I tried to take the old tissues to throw away but she corrected this "young man" that I wouldn't want her germs and stuck it quickly into her coat pocket.

I sat back down and was tempted to pull out my phone.  "I'm important don't you know and some text or email might be waiting my immediate attention."  I left the phone in my pocket.  I was determined to stay put and keep this lady company until the bus came.  

We started to talk about life.  She shared about their situation and wanting to be back home with her husband.  This setback put their lives into a tail spin because she was the driver of the family.  She attributed her cough to the many others in the facility where she was receiving help.  "Everyone is coughing there," she said.

There was nothing profound in our conversation.  We watched the appointed bus come by the windows and noted it was coming for her.  A valet attendant came, released the wheelchair brakes, and proceeded to wheel her out into the cold air.  She turned to me and said, "Thank you."  She actually said it many times.  I knew it was for more than the half cup of water and some clean tissues.  It was for not bypassing her.  It was for listening.  It was for looking at her.  It was for being what I would envision Jesus would have wanted me to do at that moment.  One of God's creations (the elderly lady) needed another one of His creations (a willing me) to stop, look, serve, and listen.

Again, this is not to glorify me.  My temptation was to move.  I probably could have went into the emergency room sooner to see who I was there for.  My phone can keep me occupied to be oblivious to what is happening around me.  But on that Thursday, the cough caught my ears, the cold air made me shiver, the movement alerted my eyes, and the Spirit woke me up to do something that God wanted done.  I wonder how many times I don't wake up to His prodding.

She departed and I made my way into the emergency room.  I know that my heart was conditioned by God through that event to be a better pastor and person.  

"God, who are You going to roll up beside me next?"  

I pray this blog post will slow you down today to see what could happen when we go from being selfish to selfless.  What could happen today with an action or word that is different than what the majority are doing or saying?  I will say it one more time, all glory be to Christ, for any actions I performed were directed by Him for my obedience.  This time, I took the step and obeyed.

Adam