WHATEVER YOU DO…

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

1/1/2013

WHATEVER YOU DO…

When a verse in the Bible comes alive to us, it changes our vision, our perspective and our life. As Christians we know this is true as we have seen the power of the gospel transform us. We are born again! Our spirits that were once dead are alive in Christ and communicate with God Almighty! I love when a verse that I have read pops out to me as if it is highlighted and all of a sudden I have understanding; godly wisdom that literally changes me.

Colossians 3:23-25 says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

I have heard this verse a million times, I grew up listening to scripture songs and I sung my little heart out to this verse. Something was deposited in my spirit and later in life came very alive.

I used to work night shifts in an emergency room hospital. I was an ER tech that was working on my nursing degree. For people who don’t understand working in an ER breeds a whole type of people, and those who work the night shift definitely are a different breed altogether. The hospital ER is actually ran by nurses, and the docs who come in are not hospital staff, they are contract doctors, at least in this hospital. Then there are the ER techs. They assist docs in procedures, do the dirty work involving poop, vomit, pee, blood etc, draw blood, put in catheters, cast breaks, transport patients, EKGs, hold teeny newborns in a crunched ball for Dr to do spinal tap, and a variety of  things specific to the cases that come in.  As an ER tech I truly saw the patients more than the nurses and certainly more than the dr. It was tiring, especially for me since I am a morning bird and not a night owl; 3 shifts of 12 hours, 7pm to 7am in a row. Meanwhile I had 3 small, homeschooled children at home that slept while I worked. I would return home and sleep a few hours and wake up to homeschool and do the duties of mom, wife, student and teacher. When my husband would return from work I would sleep an hour and then get up make dinner, kiss my family goodbye and head off to the odd world of night shift in the ER. I squeezed in my own studying and homework on days off. I lived in a buzzy feeling of semi-reality, off of redbull, coffee, bouillon cubes in hot water and fruit. My system was completely messed up and I felt like I was a sleeping person with automatic responses to things.

I describe all of that to give you a picture of my reality. It wasn’t glamorous, it was hard, exhausting, never-ending; a continuous cycle of taking care of people’s needs. I had to switch my realities from being covered in blood and rushing around with a team of nurses and docs for a 19 year old dying with his brains falling out of his head because of gang violence, yet still stopping to pray and hold his hand as he died, knowing soon a mother would be notified of her son’s death. I would hear and feel the crackles of broken ribs under my hands while I would be doing CPR on a grandma, as her family stood outside waiting with impending doom; again with every compression I was praying for the Lord to be there, speak to her, comfort her before she died. I would be the person left to wait with a family until death came for a father who just dropped while walking with his children. The family surrounding him, the docs letting them know there is nothing more they can do; the bells, chimes, alarms going off signaling life is running out. I just stood, quietly praying in the Spirit, knowing my Lord was with me and I was His servant interceding and standing as a representative of Jesus. It’s funny; they would look at me without words but huge questions in their eyes, not to the doctors for comfort. I would place a hand on the shoulder, make eye contact, and in those moments I knew that the realm of spiritual authority rested with me and not on the medical staff. So many other experiences that were so intense would then be left as I drove away, come home, peel my clothes off in laundry room to immediately wash away the night’s germs, blood and gore. I would then wake to making “froggy in the pond” eggs and toast, teaching about the different types of rocks, quizzing math facts, correcting grammar, and work on unit studies about medieval times. I was living a life of contradiction; a need for gentleness yet strength that was beyond me.

In seasons of life we juggle more than other times, this was one of those times. I prayed fervently while working. I needed His strength. One night it was slow, the nurses were sitting together on one side of the station, the doc on the other. I didn’t know where to go. There is often an unsaid tension between some of the docs and nurses, and I found the ER tech was the bridge. I knew if I sat down I would be making a statement, I also knew if I sat down I would probably fall asleep. So I worked. And as I worked I found myself singing, “whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord, rather than for man. Knowing it’s for the Lord you will receive and inheritance, its Christ who you serve…” Then it hit me, the more I sang the more Gods plan was unfolding before me. Other verses came into my mind about if you do this unto the least of these you are doing unto Him, referring to Matthew 25:40. The light came on!

That moment I shifted from even caring about the accolades, the acceptance of my superiors, my pay, or fitting in. I cared only about my “employment” to the Lord. My heart was joyful. I made beds, cleaned blood, empty garbage, stocked medical supplies on the down time everyone else was sitting down for. I smiled and joyfully took vitals, and when patients did come in I served in my heart knowing it was for the Lord. Every shift was an opportunity for me to do unto the Lord, and truly understanding that it didn’t matter what I was doing but I did my best for God. I didn’t cut corners, I didn’t sit down, I didn’t complain because I knew I was accountable to God, He was seeing what I was doing and I cared about only pleasing Him.

Weeks went on, months went on and it seemed I was oblivious to the talk around me. I had a greater purpose, and doctors began requesting me in their stations and telling the head nurse that they wanted to only work with me. Nurses began thanking me for being so helpful and on top of things in the room and with the patients, and some even told me to stop because I was making them all look bad. I was completely unaware of what God was doing through me until one night I came in for my shift and all the nurses and other techs were looking at me and smiling and started saying things like “Wow, that’s pretty awesome”, or “very impressed”…I had no idea what they were talking about so I just went about my business and finally said to me, “You’ve made quite the impression.” I asked what they were talking about. They said, “Oh you didn’t read the bulletin board in the break room?” So when time permitted I went into the break room, almost embarrassed to see what was in there. On the bulletin board was a letter from the director of the ER going on about ME! I was so humbled by it all; he had been receiving letters from the ER docs praising me to him. I was so shocked by it, as I stood there I realized they were drawn to me because of Christ in me. The Holy Spirit began flooding my heart with understanding. At this point I felt the impact of working unto the Lord. I thanked Him and asked for further wisdom. It was at this time the Holy Spirit began speaking to me about the patients.

One night in particular stands out to me when I look at pivotal moments in my life. The Lord had been speaking to me about not continuing nursing school; in short to lay it down. I was struggling with this. I was set to obey the Lord and hadn’t told anyone at work yet. A doctor who requested me for her tech was chatting more with me. She was a very rough person, sarcastic and cutting, she cussed like a sailor and was feared by nurses and even other doctors but she was top-notch, never missed a thing and although feared she was greatly respected. But that night I got a peek to her vulnerable side.

As the night went on she began telling me how she was raised in a rich home with no parents there, ever. She was given every material thing she needed but no love. I felt compassion for her and just prayed for her as I worked that night. Something strange happened. She had gone to treat a patient with a hurt arm and diagnosed a sprain. I was then sent to him to wrap it and take vitals to release him. As I touched his arm the Holy Spirit spoke to me that his arm was broken. I didn’t know what to do. I needed to be submissive to the doctor, and was afraid of saying anything, so I quietly prayed, but I didn’t have peace in letting him go. I humbly went to the doctor and told her that I think his arm is broken. She looked indignant, surprised yet softened and now intrigued. She said, “Ok…I will order an Xray.” I went along with my duties, time passed and then she called me over to her. She let me know it was indeed broken and gave me my instructions for the type of cast I needed to put on it. I could feel her watching me. Hours went on and regular talk went on. Then arrived a man with severe pain. She ordered normal tests, nurse began IV and I needed to take vitals. Again, when I went to put my hands on him, the Spirit spoke to me, “Upper GI bleed.” My heart raced. Again I felt I need to just tell her. I was scared now. So I told her, I think he has an upper GI bleed. She hadn’t even begun his work-up! She looked at me with suspicious curiosity. Again she order tests, and ultrasounds according to what I was telling her. Hours later she called me over to her and told me I was right. She then paused to tell me she was going to keep her eyes on me. She went on to tell me I shouldn’t be a nurse that I should be a doctor.

It was then that I told her I was actually quitting school. She looked floored and almost angry at me. She told me I was making a mistake. I just smiled. She then asked if it was a money issue, and I am pretty convinced she was about to offer to pay for my schooling. I told her no, that I felt I needed to be home with my family. She looked dumbfounded but smiled. That was one of my last shifts there and it was the last time I worked with her.

The years went on and the lesson the Lord was intensely teaching me began to fade as homeschool became harder, life was getting “boring”. It seemed I fell into the lie that my everyday life of being a mom, wife and teacher was sucking the identity right out of me. I was cranky and everything was a chore. I began feeling entitled to be bigger, make something out of my life, and contribute to the household income. What I laid down years before I picked right back up.

Back to school for me, I was excelling and yet justifying my decisions to myself by saying it would maybe lead to us having enough money to then take greater part in ministry. I was accepted into the bachelor program at ASU and was a few weeks away from starting, the day I was going to purchase my books, the Lord spoke to me again.

He gave me a clear choice, letting me know that I could choose either thing. I felt I would be blessed in pursuing being a nurse. I didn’t feel like I would be disobeying Him or messing up my life, but then He said, “You can do this, but I have something better for you.” He told me I didn’t need a degree to be used in healing. Then my mind was flooded with how He gave me supernatural wisdom at the hospital. I cried and cried, literally brokenhearted. I wanted so much to trust the Lord. I wanted what He called would be “better” for me. I was realizing how hard I had made it on myself by picking up what I already laid down years before. Was all of this in vain? I was so close…again and now the Lord was offering me a promise I couldn’t see, didn’t know how it would look and it required faith and laying down any education or my own understanding. It would require me trusting Him to fulfill what He was offering as I wouldn’t know how to attain it. It wasn’t going to be a success I could measure with grades, promotion, or skills tests. It was going to be a complete reliance on the Spirit. I got before the Lord and cried and told I want His better way.

I would like to say it has been nothing but a miraculous and glorious time since that day; that like Peter, my shadow can pass by and heal people’s infirmities. It is not, but I hold fast to the promise in the Lord and at unexpected times I will lay hands on my children or my husband and the Lord has healed. I have many times past by someone and the Lord will speak to me problem. I just know. So I pray as I pass by, I have no way to prove anything, or any way of knowing if they were healed but I go back to my lesson He taught me in the hospital; “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

So now in my everyday life I live it intentionally. I serve Him by serving others. If its wiping a boogar nose, homeschooling, rubbing my husband’s shoulders, making dinner every single night of my life, cleaning toilets, holding a sick and vomiting child, helping a friend in need, writing, giving, taking a cart back for an older woman, helping a blind person in the store, listening to a weary fellow sister, making meals, going without, cleaning the kitchen, interceding for a dying man, and yes even the laundry, I do it for Him. I do it to serve Him and He will count it as righteousness to me in heaven.

Live an extraordinary life in your ordinary day. Because it doesn’t matter who sees it here on earth, He sees it all. My identity is not in what I do, but rather who I am. I am a servant of the Most High God and every single day He gives me is a gift to not be wasted. How can I glorify Him today…in my life? In my home? In my marriage? With my children? To the unsaved? To the hurt or lonely? I choose to live intentionally, no matter the season He has me in. Don’t accept the trick that you always are working to something in the future. It is here and now. Today counts, in WHATEVER you do, if you are doing it unto the Lord. This is a daily reminder, a practice I have to train in and fights against the definition of “success”.

Lord help us to serve You in whatever we do, that You'd reveal the riches to us in doing the "boring, menial, grunt, same old-same old, predictable jobs" as well as the other things You have called us to in our giftings. But that in no matter what we do, we would glorify You. In Jesus name. amen