Inward, Upward, And Outward

HoHum:

Got up early Friday morning and read the overnight reports from the hospice team. There was an emergency admission the previous evening. This patient was continuing to decline, he was imminent, meaning that his vitals signs indicated that he would die soon. The report told about his wife of 68 years and how she was handling the news, not good, having a hard time accepting the impending death. There was a call for volunteers from the hospice to go and be with this patient and his wife in these final hours. The hospice was short staffed and nurses were stretched to their limit. It was Friday morning and I had a pile of paperwork that needed to be done, going to this visit would only increase my workload. Even so, there was a nagging voice inside my head that said, “Davon, you really need to go and be with this couple.” No, no, I need to get started on this paperwork. Ok, so I started on the paperwork. 9 o’clock, 9:30, 10 o’clock, 10:30 am, I had a stopping place in my paperwork. I checked the reports, still no news that the patient had died. Oh, I must get back to my paperwork so I can finish. The nagging voice kept getting louder and louder. Finally, the voice was too much to ignore. It said, “Davon, what kind of hospice chaplain are you? Hasn’t God called you to go and be with people who are dying.” “But I have all this paperwork.” “Don’t worry about that, you just GO!”

WBTU:

Reading a book called Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian life and the book said, “Compassion is neither our central concern nor our primary stance in life. What we really desire is to make it in life, to get ahead, to be first, to be different. We want to forge our identifies by carving out for ourselves niches in life where we can maintain a safe distance from others. We do not aspire to suffer with others. On the contrary, we develop methods and techniques that allow us to stay away from pain. We must recognize that we are more competitive than compassionate.” My mind immediately went to that situation on Friday morning. I wanted to have a comfortable morning, I didn’t want to be bothered with these people and their problems. I just didn’t want to get involved and feel their pain. I gave a convenient excuse of having to do paperwork. Honestly, I am more competitive than compassionate- I want a comfortable and easy life and to make these strangers troubles my own for just a few minutes makes me uneasy. I just didn’t feel like having a gut punch that morning. Yes, there is an expression in the Gospels that appears several times and it means to be moved with compassion. The Greek verb in this expression literally means the entrails of the body, or as we might say today, the guts. It is the same feeling we get in our stomach when we are going down the first drop of a roller coaster. It is the same feeling when we hear horrible news. Our stomach feels like it has just been kicked in. I just didn’t want that on Friday morning. But it was a gut punch and from my experience I knew it would be. I went and, after introductions, sat down with the wife and the wife’s brother and talked about the patient and his life. The wife kept on talking and after about 15 minutes, the patient stopped breathing. I interrupted the wife and took vitals and tried to get a reaction but there was nothing, he had died. I got the facility nurse (hospice nurse was not there) and along with the help of the nurse practitioner, they confirmed that the man had died. Then the reaction of the wife was one of utter horror, I held her hand and talked with her brother. She wept and wept and talked about how meaningless life would be without her husband. I tried to point her toward the Lord and this went on for about an hour until the hospice nurse came. The hospice nurse expressed her appreciation as did everyone else. I excused myself and as I was leaving the voice said, “Now, aren’t you glad you came.” I growled at first but as I was leaving I said to myself, “Yes, I suppose I am glad I came.”

Matthew 9:35-38 tells us 3 approaches that cause people to respond to the needs of others

Thesis: Start with an inward approach, then an upward approach, and this leads to an outward approach

For instances:

Inward approach

Often talk about the plan of salvation- Hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized. Talk about the Great Confession. “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Savior,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9, NIV. Does not say Jesus is Savior, it says Jesus is Lord. Lord- to whom a person belongs, about which he has the power of deciding. A synonym is Master. “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” John 13:14, NIV.