gifts
One of the things I remember my chaplain supervisor telling us is that every person has a gift to give us. That gift can take many forms. For some, like the first pastor I worked with out of seminary, it will be to teach me what I don't want to be like. For others, it may be to show us some fault or weakness in ourselves. The gift doesn't necessarily have to be something the person wants to give us. It is a part of they're interactions with us and our journey together.
I can remember a couple who came into the trauma unit when I was a chaplain. They had been in a car accident going over 70 miles an hour when they hit an apartment building. It flipped the car and turned it completely around. The man in the car was not breathing when he came in. They had to do cpr and got his heart restarted. The teenage girl in the car had some minor scratches. She was badly scared, but otherwise unhurt. I called both of their families and asked them to come to the emergency room.
I remember the trauma team using extraordinary measures to try and save the young man's life. His internal organs were crushed. He never did regain consciously. I saw him again at 5 am. He had come out of surgery and his abdomen was completed taped up with green tape. I believe I heard that he died a few hours later that morning.
What I saw caued me to be struck by several things when I encountered this situation. One is the value of the lives of these two and how careless they were with their own lives. With everything to live for they thought they could drive that recklessly and nothing would happen. The second thing I noticed is that the staff were amazing. Everything was about saving their lives. Even when it became apparent that the internal bleeding was too extensive,they kept trying. The third thing is that the parents of the teenage girl didn't know where she had been that night. They had no idea who he even was or that he had put their daughter's life (who she called her "boyfriend") in jeopardy. That always makes me think as a parent of now a teenage girl myself.
It also made me think of someone else who rescued me from certain death, who is Christ. One of my favorite verses in Colossians is "For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved son, in who we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Col 1:13-14 It may have also seemed pointless, but it was not. The sacrifice was extremely, to the say the least.
One thing that that sacrifice says to me is that if Jesus thought you were worth the trouble of saving what does that say about how much He values you? Does that indicate to you that you are important? How then do we think or say that someone has no value. Spiritually we were dead in our transgressions and sins when Jesus died for us. Yet, God saw value in us even though we are fallen. He was able to hate the sin in us and yet love the sinner. That tells us that we are greatly loved by God and greatly valued. That's an important lesson to remember.
Questions to Consider
Do you have some difficult people in your life? What could they teach you about yourself?
Can you see that everyone has something they can teach us if we are open to it? What life lessons have others taught you?
What does your life teach others is important? What does your care or lack of care say is important to you?
What does Jesus' sacrifice say is important to God? How important is it that people are saved?
I can remember a couple who came into the trauma unit when I was a chaplain. They had been in a car accident going over 70 miles an hour when they hit an apartment building. It flipped the car and turned it completely around. The man in the car was not breathing when he came in. They had to do cpr and got his heart restarted. The teenage girl in the car had some minor scratches. She was badly scared, but otherwise unhurt. I called both of their families and asked them to come to the emergency room.
I remember the trauma team using extraordinary measures to try and save the young man's life. His internal organs were crushed. He never did regain consciously. I saw him again at 5 am. He had come out of surgery and his abdomen was completed taped up with green tape. I believe I heard that he died a few hours later that morning.
What I saw caued me to be struck by several things when I encountered this situation. One is the value of the lives of these two and how careless they were with their own lives. With everything to live for they thought they could drive that recklessly and nothing would happen. The second thing I noticed is that the staff were amazing. Everything was about saving their lives. Even when it became apparent that the internal bleeding was too extensive,they kept trying. The third thing is that the parents of the teenage girl didn't know where she had been that night. They had no idea who he even was or that he had put their daughter's life (who she called her "boyfriend") in jeopardy. That always makes me think as a parent of now a teenage girl myself.
It also made me think of someone else who rescued me from certain death, who is Christ. One of my favorite verses in Colossians is "For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved son, in who we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Col 1:13-14 It may have also seemed pointless, but it was not. The sacrifice was extremely, to the say the least.
One thing that that sacrifice says to me is that if Jesus thought you were worth the trouble of saving what does that say about how much He values you? Does that indicate to you that you are important? How then do we think or say that someone has no value. Spiritually we were dead in our transgressions and sins when Jesus died for us. Yet, God saw value in us even though we are fallen. He was able to hate the sin in us and yet love the sinner. That tells us that we are greatly loved by God and greatly valued. That's an important lesson to remember.
Questions to Consider
Do you have some difficult people in your life? What could they teach you about yourself?
Can you see that everyone has something they can teach us if we are open to it? What life lessons have others taught you?
What does your life teach others is important? What does your care or lack of care say is important to you?
What does Jesus' sacrifice say is important to God? How important is it that people are saved?
