And so many people who were touched by my gesture with the ashes said, “Never before have we had the church come to us,” or “We couldn’t make it to church, but you brought God to us.” It turns out, a lot of people who never go inside a church were still looking for God. I did the same for many of the patients and family members. They talked about their faith, or their faith struggles, or their rejection of God. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? And yet people stopped and received the sign of the cross in ashes. As staff rushed past me, I offered to make the sign of the cross on their foreheads and pray for them. I did as they requested and then decided to go to every floor of the hospital including the ER. I was present with the family to support them for a few more minutes and then to my surprise the medical staff in the hallway asked for a blessing and the ashes. As I looked outside the door of the room, I noticed several nurses and one PA standing just outside the room observing everything I was doing. She looked at me bewildered and then said, “I did no such thing.” I looked at the room number above the door and realized that I was in the wrong room and on the wrong floor. His wife then spoke up and said, “I prayed that God would send us a sign that he was with us during our sadness, and you showed up with this bowl of ashes.” I thanked her for requesting the ashes. He poured out his heart to me with many tears. I provided him pastoral care through empathetic listening. He was angry that God would allow his daughter to suffer in this way. He went on to say that he was the fixer of everything in the family. The dad was reluctant to receive the blessing and the ashes. As I placed the ashes on their foreheads, I said a blessing over them. I introduced myself to them and then said a blessing over the ashes. When I arrived, she was in a comatose state. I carried with me a little bowl of ashes to her room. I received a call from an over-house nurse that a family had requested the imposition of ashes for their adult daughter.
He also serves as the chaplain and bereavement care coordinator at Majestic Hospice in Atlanta, Georgia.Ī few years ago, at Hamilton Medical Hospital in Dalton, Georgia, I was the on-call chaplain. Stephen Streett, who is the Senior Pastor of the Misty Creek Community Church in Sandy Springs, Georgia.
Today’s Holy Spirit Story comes just in time for Ash Wednesday. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” CONSIDER THIS
0 kommentar(er)
