Today was bittersweet. It was probably one of the more stressful days of work I've had in a long time. One of those days where you just keep staring at the clock just itching for the day to be over. Despite today being super stressful, it probably ended up being one of the most blessed days I've ever had.
To give you some background, I work at a nursing and rehab center, where my day started off rough from the get go. I had resistance from residents, which for anyone who has ever worked in a care facility knows that this can be stressful and put you behind in your work, which it did. I spent most of my day just trying to catch up. Breakfast couldn't of come any slower, while most all the other staff already got their first break in, I was just barely finishing catching up my morning rounds. By the time I was done all I wanted to do was just sit for five minutes. As I was heading to the breakroom to sit, I saw the breakfast trays get rolled out, so I then started passing breakfast trays. As we got to the room of one particular resident, who has taken a turn for the worst, I was voted to be the one to feed him.
After feeding him for a while I really felt God laying on my heart to speak with him, perhaps even share the Gospel. I pushed that feeling away and just kept on feeding him without saying a word, after all, this man has never been the talkative type anyways. But the more I sat there, the more pain I could see this man was in. I couldn't take it anymore, so I then obeyed that small voice and decided to open the door of conversation by asking him if I could pray for him. He agreed, so I did. After I finished praying I was excited to start talking with him about God, the Gospel, but before I could get a word in, he started talking to me instead. He proceeded to tell me about the good ol' days and how he started following God at the age of 15. I couldn't believe it, this man was a believer!
He then just started telling me words of wisdom. Things like how nothing else matters but to follow in God's footsteps, or how sick he is of televangelists who are millionaires while the body of Christ is poor. He then got to the point in his life of when he met his wife. It was at this particular point that he started to expound. He told me to wait, to stop looking and being impatient, to know that in God's good timing a wife will come. For anyone who knows me or has read my previous blogs, this is and has been the number one discontentment for me. Looking around and seeing all my friends married, in relationships, or heading towards relationships, it seems like everyone has someone except me. And I would get mad, even at God (stupid I know). But here I was sitting there, holding on to all of that, and this man was telling me exactly what I needed to hear. The only thing this man knew about me was my name, and God was using him as a vessel to teach me, put me in my place, and bring me back to Him. Needless to say I was shocked, I had never heard him speak with such wisdom and clarity. The most I ever really hear him talk is when he is yelling for help, but now he was helping me in the deepest of ways. What I thought was going to be me ministering to him actually turned out to be him ministering to me!
He shared more wisdom with me as well as he continued his story and by the time he was done he had me in tears, like the waterworks, snot and everything (sorry for such detail). But when he finished I told him "Wow, that's quite a story!", he then told me "Well it's not my story, I didn't write it, God's the author." Not only wise, but humble as well, he directed all that glory back to God. After I finished feeding him all I wanted to do was sit there and talk with him all day, but I had to get back to work. I thanked him for his words and left the room with tears still in my eyes. Who would of thought that such a mighty man of God was hidden amongst us. Day in and day out, completely dependent upon us, this man had far more to offer than anything we could ever do for him. He had wisdom.