Difficult realizations.....

I watched a documentary on the holocaust this morning and it really got me thinking, would I do the right thing no matter the cost? I hope I would but you never know until the moment arrives. In a world with declining morality, it's easy to become desensitized to the hurting and the helpless. We are all so busy these days, it's so easy to be focused on our growing "to do" lists that we completely bypass someone in need, and not because our heart is hardened, simply because we are distracted. It's a sad reality really. This started to hit home for me several days ago while I was working in ICU, my patient had end-stage liver disease from years of being an alcoholic, he was on a vent and in all likelihood, would never live off of a vent. It took us several days to even find family, but we finally contacted his daughter who flew in and made the decision to do a terminal wean (take him off the vent), but after she had flown back home. I have no idea the relationship between her and her father but she treated him lovingly while at his bedside. It honestly never occurred to me that this man would be dying alone until one of our hospital chaplains talked with me and was appropriately horrified by that fact. She wanted me to let her know when the time came to disconnect him from the vent so that SHE could be at his bedside so he wouldn't die alone. That conversation really bothered me the rest of the shift (and continues to bother me) because had she not said anything, I would have gone about my day taking care of all the "tasks" that needed to be done. I'm ashamed to say that I would have let him die alone! Would it have occurred to me if this man was dying from something not self-inflicted.....probably, and that's the sad part. I've seen so many people die this year alone from self-inflicted behaviors that at times it really makes me angry. I think God has been convicting me in this area because in that moment, I realized that no matter the cause of someone dying, they are still human and they still deserve compassion. No one should die alone, ever!

We have a McDonald near our home and there is a couple who frequently stand outside of it with a "need help" type of sign. To be honest, I don't even know what the sign says because I've never stopped to read it. There's a part of me that becomes angry to see someone young, standing for hours to receive handouts, they could be using that time and energy in better ways. I've been feeling convicted about this couple, how many times have I driven past them, made a judgement about them and yet I know absolutely nothing about their situation. They are human too, they have a need, I should investigate at least a little bit. I've decided that the next time I see this couple, rather than drive past, I'm going to stop and talk with them, see how they got to this point and what is their need. I'm going to give them one of our church fliers and let them know our church can most likely help meet some of their needs in ways that I myself can not. I'm going to go outside of my comfort zone because they are people just like me and I would hope someone would notice if I had a need. It's too easy to not notice these types of situations around us, the opportunity to do what is right is always there. I'm really trying this year to push beyond my comfort zones, it's not always good to be comfortable. Growth doesn't happen when I'm comfortable and if God is going to allow me more time here, I want my life to have meaning. I really want to live for an audience of one! We are living in some dark times, I don't want to be a spectator anymore, it's time to dig in and get dirty!
A couple weekends ago, I found a mama lab and her puppy wandering our neighborhood. I dropped everything, canceled all my plans for that day, and found the puppy a new home. I'm learnintg that I need to have the same attitude that I have for animals and spend that on people.