SARAH'S
TEARS
Late one December night on the cancer ward
the halls were quiet and solemn, the patients were asleep and
most of the visitors were gone. The nurses were gathered about
the nurse's station preparing for shift change. Sarah, one of the
nurses, was especially tired, having worked seven straight 12
hour days. The kids had needs, her husband had been laid off, and
the house payment was due. What kept her going was that in
January she was going to find a new job. After ten years of
answering call lights, working short staffed, putting up with
constant administrative changes, she had decided that it was not
worth the effort anymore.
PING. PING.
PING. Sara angrily looked at the call light box, "Good
grief!" The patient was a seventy-year-old woman. Sarah had
been to her room at the end of the hall at least fifteen times.
Angrily she started down the hall. On her way, she suddenly
stopped. She stood motionless as a soft voice wafted out of room
235.
"And
then one day
I'll cross the river;
I'll fight life's final war with pain;
And then as death gives way to victory,
I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know He lives."
Tears
welled up in her eyes as she listened and thought about the young
woman in that room -- a thirty-five year old mother of two with
cancer, with only a week to live, perhaps days. Sarah stood
there, with tears in her eyes, remembering how this young
terminal woman had such peace. The patient would speak to
everyone who came into her room and she would smile even in her
pain and took the time to share her faith and let people know the
reason for her peace was a faith in God. All the nurses who had
been around her commented on her strength and how they had felt
peace and calm after talking with this exceptional young woman.
"Because
He lives, I can face tomorrow;
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know who holds the future,
Life is worth all the living, just because He lives."
Unstoppable
tears flowed as Sarah stood a few moments more, but the tears had
taken on a newness. No longer were they tears of sadness for this
young woman but tears of renewal that washed away the
disappointment and disillusionment of her job, and the fear about
the future.
Sarah
started down the hall to answer the call light, but she was no
longer going to check on some pestering old woman. She was going
to the room of a patient, a person, a fellow human in need. Sarah
no longer looked to January so she could quit -- she looked to
her next shift when she would again have the opportunity to serve
her fellow man.
Sarah left
work with a new outlook on life. She had a rekindling of the
spirit of service that had motivated her to become a nurse. Those
fires had almost died, but for a young terminal woman who had the
desire to be of service to her fellow man even unto death.
This is a
reminder to me that the reason that we are on this earth at all
is to be of service to each other. Christ said it best when He
said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down
his life for his brother."
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