10-12-2012

I went to the hospital today. No, I’m not sick. In fact, physically speaking, I couldn’t be any better.
Today started out pretty much like any normal day. Mondays at the office are usually about meetings and planning for the week so that’s basically all I did at work. Then the usual office politics and bureaucracy that gets me all agitated continued and as expected I was fuming through the day. I think some of my colleagues closest to me have come to understand just how frustrated I can get working in that environment. Anyway, this post is not about tales/woes of my work life. I said all that to say that what started out as a typical Monday morning, progressively grew worse. I’m happiest when I’m away from work. I spent the better part of the day complaining and whining about everything. At some point I was almost getting depressed just thinking about the things that don’t work, from my work place to Nigeria in general. This line of thought also made me start questioning some decisions I’d made recently. Bottom line, I didn’t have a good day and all my complaining was justified.
At close of work, I met up with some other ladies from church. We belong to a small group (Spiritual, Stylish and Smart) that’s basically for young unmarried ladies. Prior to this time, my group (which is a team of about 20young ladies, a sub-group of the SSS) had made plans to go for hospital visitation. We had agreed on a particular sum each person would contribute and things we would buy for in-patients of a particular ward of the General hospital. Imagine my surprise when I got to church and no one had showed up, twenty minutes later three more people turned up and we had only been able to raise a fraction of the total sum we had agreed on. Anger doesn’t even begin to define what I was feeling at the time. After a crappy day at work, I was coming to meet an even crappier day at church. I almost called of the entire trip as it seemed like we were ill prepared but somehow we finally made it to the hospital, all four of us. I’ll skip all the other challenges we had to face at the hospital before we finally made it to the Male Orthopedic Ward.
I honestly have no idea why we finally settled on that ward, but we did. After speaking to the Matron, we decided to split the total sum we had into two and give to two patients in the ward who needed help most. God bless the Matron who was extra helpful in providing us will all the information we needed.
I doubt that I can adequately describe the state of the ward, let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be there no matter how sick I was, not even if I was paid to be there. For the entire hour or so I spent in that ward, I kept fighting the urge to throw up.
The first patient we met was a man in his mid-fifties who had lost the use of both legs due to an accident he had a while back. He couldn’t even sit for the entire time we were with him. His wife did most of the talking. Long story short, we spoke with him, prayed for him and gave him the token we had to offer, then moved to the second patient and did the same thing. Needless to say, they were both very appreciative. As we were about to leave, I turned around to say a quick goodbye to the first patient when I noticed something that struck me: the wife of the patient had knelt down beside her husband, with her hands lifted up to heaven praising and thanking God. I could see the genuine appreciation on her face even as she did this, then she took her husband’s hands in hers as she continued praying and the smile on her face was beyond what words can express.
I fought back the tears as I walked out of the Ward. Here I was blessed in a million ways yet complaining and bitching about the things that honestly do not matter. I have a job, said patient has been unable to walk/work for months. If he could trade places with me, I’m sure he wouldn’t miss a beat. I’m not exactly sure why I’m writing this or why I’m posting it here but I’m reminded just how truly blessed I am. My group was silent as we walked out of the hospital this evening. Our silent gratitude for life and living expressed in the hugs we shared at the gate and a quick promise to visit again soon.
When we take a minute to step back from ourselves and our issues and view the world through someone else’s eyes, we will be amazed at how much we have going for us. The things that seem all so important now really won’t make much sense.
I know it’s easy to see another’s plight, feel sorry for a few minutes, hours or if we are really good people, a few days and then life goes back to normal. So maybe that’s why I’m putting this out here as a reminder to myself. Life really doesn’t consist of the abundance of things we have. We are happiest when we do things for others.
In this season of celebration and as the year comes to an end, why don’t we take the focus off ourselves for a few days and do something for someone else… It is more blessed to give than to receive. So that Christmas wish-list you have, of all the things you want from Santa (read as your bank account), rip it. Write another list of all the things you can do for someone else. Think of all the people who were a blessing to you this year, all the people you’d love to see smile, the ones who can’t do anything for themselves, and make Christmas a happy time for them. Make your gifts thoughtful, you don’t have to break the bank. Simple things that’d bring a smile to a face.
While we spread the Christmas cheer, let us not forget to share the love and grace that we have freely received; the gift of Christ and Salvation.