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Friday, August 10, 2012

A Most Important Lesson

I am learning a lot about love serving as a chaplain at St. Joseph's Hospital.  Women and men, young and old, choose to constantly support their loved ones. The other day I had the privilege of taking two African American women up to their pastor's room. He was recovering from a very serious illness.
   Their conversation was loving and honest. He candidly talked about how he had failed to take care of himself and how his wife, children, and other members of the church went out of their way to tell him that they were concerned about how he looked and how he was behaving. Finally he decided to see his doctor who immediately got him to go to the hospital for necessary service.
    I cannot remember any time in my life as a minister when I had participated in such an honest interchange with human beings I served.
     I left his room determined to be a more open and caring human being. I am so glad to have had an opportunity to be with three human beings who loved God, themselves, and each other so very much.

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