Human Documents, Living Death...

If you don't know where I am or what I am doing than this is a good blog for you to read. I started working at Decatur Memorial Hospital and Hospice on January 4th and my life has never been the same. I am the chaplain Intern.

Chaplains are constantly working in crisis ministry. My mentor, who is the lead Chaplain at the hospital and in hospice said, "You will experience and see more here in six months that working in the church for six years." This is a man who worked in the church as the pastor for twenty years and now has worked as a chaplain for twenty-two. He has shown me when to listen, when to talk, how to talk, and how to shine the love of Christ to people who are in all kinds of life situations.

The more I visit with people, the more I hear their stories. The more I try to encourage the more I see the need for Christ, the more I see the need for scripture, and the more I see the need for the active healthy church.

Psalm 14:1

"The fool says in his heart "There is no God."

This verse has been made apparent as I have worked with human documents. My job is to go visit men and women in the hospital and in hospice and offer spiritual support. I have visited all kinds of people in all kinds of situations. Some who have had all the cards stacked against them. Some who have family abuse, death, addiction. Some who have been in church all of their lives but are still not assured of their salvation. Some that don't want anything to do with God and are angered by the name Christian.

The men and women in the hospital are different than the men and women I visit in hospice. Hospital patients usually have a chance of leaving their hospital room and going home to live.

Hospice patients are in their dying days.

Visiting men and women who are dying has put a spin on my perception of life.

I want to live.

I don't want to be on my dying bed, at any age, and feel like I haven't done enough. The only way I can combat this thought is to find my security in Christ. The hope bringer.

When I visit men and women who are dying, all the shit that we think is important in our youth holds no importance. The stances we take in our opinions, in our important arguments, in our self righteous lifestyles doesn't hold water when we are in our dying days. "Generations come and generations go." Ecc. 1:2

We will not be remembered. Our relationships will be forgotten. Our names will be forgotten.

Unless we are under, around, and within Christ.

If we choose to be found within his life, death and resurrection then we can find enjoyment within our daily lives, because we will know that even though we live a momentary life, on our death beds we can say that we lived.

I visited a patient in hospice who wasn't done yet. She had more to do. She had a job, a family even a dog who needed her care. Who cried when my mentor and I walked in because she thought we were there to give her last rights. We assured her that we were there to visit and to offer support.

She died a week later.

We can either choose to be in a state of living death, where we find discontentment in every relationship, in every life situation, in every moment. Or we can find ourselves within Christ and we can be content with what we have and with who we are. We can find our security in the true life rather or we can deceive ourselves by trying to find life within our death.