Just one more...

It's the last day of the month of September and I have yet to drop a substantive post. I have been so very busy and yet my thoughts have been more active and at times, restless than ever. In the rare opportunities that I get at work when all my work is caught up for the moment, I open up Google docs and drop a few lines to myself to orient what's going on in my life and leave notes to myself. Mostly they are reminders of how God has allowed me to be a chess piece in encouraging a specific patient or person that has near lost all sense of hope when they have received life shattering news or awakened to their state of hell of being locked inside their body that physically cannot get out of bed or even voice their needs, their frustration, or pain in intelligible words.

For some a simple moan, single syllable or sound is the only thing that can be uttered from their soul accompanied with eyes saturated with deep despair and pain. These are the eyes that I look into as I look right back at them and tell them, "My name is Adam and I am going to be your nurse today!"

There isn't much I need to say but everything that I do throughout the day to demonstrate that they are still alive, they matter beyond words, carry intrinsic dignity and worth, and that their situation can become better if they can have the faith to simply put one foot forward at a time. Those small steps will turn into strides in time!

The patients that I care for are stroke and trauma victims that have experienced motor vehicle accidents, major brain injuries, limb amputations, gun shot wounds, heart attacks, open heart surgeries, recently diagnosed with cancer or in general: people that have had their lives shattered in a thousand pieces!

All to say that we all have our own crosses to carry and demons that we battle and are in desperate need to be encouraged daily!

I awake every morning and find myself on my face before God before my day starts. I call upon the God that I have come to know and have a time-tested fellowship with, in all the good in my life and especially, in all seasons of suffering.

I begin with encouraging myself to get to that place of alone time with Him. Then I ask Him, "Lord help me to die to myself today so that I can be filled with the Holy Spirit and live for your glory and serve those you have put into my care today!"

I then pray intercessory prayers for my family, friends, and all those that have come to share some significant chapter in my life with.

God is present in my life and his work is evident in the lives that I have been able to care for-I hope to write about specific cases in the future because their stories are a part of our shared human experience in this life and will have great ramifications in eternity. How we have loved people matters now and will matter in the end!

Someone in your life is in great need for a good word, to be validated, to be encouraged. It may be you that you need to start with and then someone in your household and then outward on and on.

God has given you another moment, a golden opportunity, a chance to get up one more time! The fight is not over yet and He is not done with you yet!

Hebrews 3:13 NCV- But encourage each other every day while it is “today.” Help each other so none of you will become hardened because sin has tricked you.