Simple Things

I was in mid-career as a family physician when life as I knew it ended.  Over a four-year period, my husband left me, I was forced out of my practice, my heart began to weaken and all medical interventions failed to stop that.  I tried to work part-time as a medical director reviewing requests for costly medical procedures and making sure they were necessary.  That took all my energy, and I had to relent and retire. I was confused, depressed, and angry at God.  I couldn’t understand how God would call me to be healer and take away all ability to do that.  I believed I had no way to serve God.  Everything that defined my life was now gone.  Or so I thought.

The hardest thing about being disabled is boredom.  To fight that, I made a promise to myself to get dressed and out of the house every day.  That typically meant going out to lunch with a book as my only companion.  One day, I was waiting for a “make your own burrito” place to open.  There was an older gentleman waiting as well.  We entered together, and the older gentleman was trying to figure out what to do.  I walked him down the line showing him how to get a burrito then went back to the start and got my own.  When I finished eating and started to leave, the gentleman stopped me and said thank you.  As I walked out the door, that Holy Spirit voice said, “See.  You can still be kind.” And just to make sure I got the point, he provided opportunities to open doors, pay for a lunch, and make a cashier having a bad day smile.

In My Utmost for His Highest  Oswald Chambers says, “It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not.  We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary street, among ordinary people”.  God showed me that I still had a high calling-to bring his love into the world through simple acts of kindness. And those simple acts are profound.  In this age of technology and social media, I can even do that on days I am too ill to leave the house. I am still a healer, just in a different way.