Beyond our hospital team

Team-building.  It can be good.  My group of hospital volunteers set out last month to improve ourselves via team-building.  An effort toward considering the other person first—whether patient, visitor, staff member, or fellow volunteer.  We walk in someone else’s shoes, so to say, and thoughtfully view from their perspective.  And on this particular Wednesday, a seemingly small gesture had profound effect.  Session 1 asked us to wear a blindfold and let our partner guide our steps.  I imagined my partner holding my arm or my hand and walking alongside.  But that’s not what happened.  I stood behind my partner, and she took my left hand to place it atop her left shoulder and my right hand to place atop her right.  So simple, but what a difference.  This way, my feet would step only where both her feet had already trod.  I didn’t worry about her forgetting to warn me about anything because her whole body was step-for-step directly ahead.  We weren’t walking different parts of any aisle.  She would meet obstacles before I would.  She would withstand the brunt of any collisions.  Any turn she would encounter first.  Jesus says in John 8:12, “…Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  And the Lord illustrated this for me with new meaning.  As a cancer patient finds comfort in a cancer survivor, as a rehab resident is encouraged by a recovered addict, as a fearful young mom heeds wisdom from her older neighbor, we find confidence in knowing Jesus walks before us, after us, and along both sides.  Never will He abandon or forget to guide.  Nowhere will He not provide for our need.  He saves us today, tomorrow, and the next day, and ultimately He saves His children from the eternal torment of death.  He's protected me countless times that I haven't realized until much later.  And on this day at the hospital, I love how He revealed Himself within the ordinary day, how He entered my thinking, how He enlightened our team-building for the grander scale of life itself.  May we ask to sense His presence.  May we know the joy of having Him lead.  There’s no inch of this earth beyond His reach.

Worldwide VEVO

I hear people say they want to be part of something bigger than themselves.  I understand that.  I was inspired when my husband turned on Netflix and watched a VEVO production in another language.  I heard words sounding like levantaré, clamaré, palabra, nunca, and siempre in Spanish and wondered if the language was Portuguese.  I found myself pausing to ponder something I tend to overlook.  This world becomes narrow and self-centered if I let it.  These foreign words I kept hearing represent people who shouldn’t be foreign to me.  These worshipers know my same Jesus.  Because the words resembled what I know in Spanish, I supposed I knew the essence of their song.  Certainly Jesus knows their language.  Those who sang had experienced Him in their land.  He loves them and saves them from the same Satan who torments me.  And if you’re reading this today from outside the United States, just apply the idea in reverse.  Across the ocean from where you sit, there’s a girl named Linda who experiences Jesus saving her daily from Satan, saving her daily from the evil of other humans and from her own independence.  We all wear the same shoes of temptation, yet Jesus resides in the hearts of His children everywhere, and how I'm thankful to be reminded of the size of that "everywhere."  Dialing up this blog, you've been reading recently alongside people from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA, and Venezuela.  That means life is connected.  I kneel to pray at the same time someone kneels in China.  You sing at the same time someone sings in Ukraine.  When someone cries to the Lord in Romania, when someone prays in Sweden, it’s quite possible the Lord has led someone in Japan or Venezuela to do the same, even as He calls us to pray for each other sometimes without ever having met face to face.  Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.”  Our God is big.  I pray you know Him as your Savior.  Salvation through Him depends not on any government system or any family history.  Jesus Christ saves upon our individual asking, and His door is always open.  I’m blessed to share this site with you, my brothers and sisters.  You’re in my prayers.