People in the Hospital
Whether patients, doctors, nurses, staff, or visitors, most of the people we've met during this time at the hospital have had three things in common: 1) They are very real. 2) They easily talk about spiritual realities. 3) They are nice people.
1) Here people are real. Being in the hospital has the tendency to push aside the facade of Western culture that delegates the fragility of life to the periphery. Some of these people are here because they or someone they know is getting well, while for others someone is finishing their days with as much grace and dignity as possible. Some are helpers. Some are hurting. Some are coherent. Others are not. Most are kind. Many are easy to talk to. Some are lonely. And, a few are cranky. With the notable exception of the influence of medications, who you are in the hospital is who you really are.
2) Here people talk about faith and God. Every person you meet understands that God is a perfectly acceptable topic for conversation. There are no real atheists in a hospital. Even, the dying denier of the Deity may try to convince himself that he is not accountable for his life, but he's really just trying to blame God for his woes. We are created with a God shaped hole, and deep inside, each of us knows it. Here, perhaps because life and death are so real, God is ever present.
3) Here people are generally very nice. They hold elevators, talk about positive things, listen
patiently to anything you may want to say, visit friends, and make allowances for faults and inconveniences we might never make room for in the outside world. It may be because of the first two realities I've observed (real people & honest spirituality), but hospitality is for the most part alive and well in a hospital.
Naturally, these observations beg the question: Why can't people outside of a hospital be more like people inside of a hospital? Or, more to the point for most my friends who read this blog: Why can't people in the Body of Christ be more like life in a hospital?
1) Here people are real. Being in the hospital has the tendency to push aside the facade of Western culture that delegates the fragility of life to the periphery. Some of these people are here because they or someone they know is getting well, while for others someone is finishing their days with as much grace and dignity as possible. Some are helpers. Some are hurting. Some are coherent. Others are not. Most are kind. Many are easy to talk to. Some are lonely. And, a few are cranky. With the notable exception of the influence of medications, who you are in the hospital is who you really are.
2) Here people talk about faith and God. Every person you meet understands that God is a perfectly acceptable topic for conversation. There are no real atheists in a hospital. Even, the dying denier of the Deity may try to convince himself that he is not accountable for his life, but he's really just trying to blame God for his woes. We are created with a God shaped hole, and deep inside, each of us knows it. Here, perhaps because life and death are so real, God is ever present.
3) Here people are generally very nice. They hold elevators, talk about positive things, listen
patiently to anything you may want to say, visit friends, and make allowances for faults and inconveniences we might never make room for in the outside world. It may be because of the first two realities I've observed (real people & honest spirituality), but hospitality is for the most part alive and well in a hospital.Naturally, these observations beg the question: Why can't people outside of a hospital be more like people inside of a hospital? Or, more to the point for most my friends who read this blog: Why can't people in the Body of Christ be more like life in a hospital?
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~Casja