It was my last semester in nursing school 10 years ago. I was somewhat nervous about this clinical rotation. Why you ask? I was going to the psych hospital! What will I see and hear?! Well, I saw people! Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, women, men, the young, and the old. I saw people walking aimlessly, no particular place to go...but going everywhere in their minds. I met "Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, and Mary the mother of Jesus." I met people that were clean and neatly dressed...and then I met those that were covered in their own feces and blood. Then I met her...my patient. She was a few years older than me, I was grateful that she was willing to talk to me. An so, I kneeled at her bedside...and listened to her story.
As a child she was molested by family, she was fatherless, she had a broken relationship with her mother, she was misunderstood, and was the "black sheep" of her family. She talked about the voices that talked to her, her desire and attempts to end her own life. As I listened to her story and looked into her eyes, I realized that we walked the same roads in life. This woman, a stranger, just told me her story...my story...our story. I lowered my head and inwardly asked God how is it that we had the same journey, but ended up in two different locations?! What separates us?! His answer was so simple, but so POWERFUL...GRACE! I was only one drop of grace from being her. It was nothing that I'd done or said, no price that I could pay...Grace, unmerited.
She was simply tired of being "strong" no longer willing to be perfect and have it all together....she needed to be vulnerable. As I said, our lives mirrored each other. I heard those voices...they told me to quit. They told me that I had nothing to say, that everything that happened to me was for nothing...that God had no use of me. Those voices said that I would fail, that I was in fact a failure...that I'd never make it. They told me to just die, give up, shut up...go away.
Had I listened, I probably would've become the lady I spoke with that day. I decided instead to listen to my Daddy. He reminds me constantly that no matter what I'm going through, no matter what's happening around me His grace is sufficient for me. That I can do ALL things through Christ that strengthens me. I can be weak in Him because my strength is perfect in Him.
You don't have to have it together. It's ok to be flawed. You don't have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders...Christ did it for you. Accept His love for you, accept His plan for you...accept Him. Let Him carry you...
HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT.
As a child she was molested by family, she was fatherless, she had a broken relationship with her mother, she was misunderstood, and was the "black sheep" of her family. She talked about the voices that talked to her, her desire and attempts to end her own life. As I listened to her story and looked into her eyes, I realized that we walked the same roads in life. This woman, a stranger, just told me her story...my story...our story. I lowered my head and inwardly asked God how is it that we had the same journey, but ended up in two different locations?! What separates us?! His answer was so simple, but so POWERFUL...GRACE! I was only one drop of grace from being her. It was nothing that I'd done or said, no price that I could pay...Grace, unmerited.
She was simply tired of being "strong" no longer willing to be perfect and have it all together....she needed to be vulnerable. As I said, our lives mirrored each other. I heard those voices...they told me to quit. They told me that I had nothing to say, that everything that happened to me was for nothing...that God had no use of me. Those voices said that I would fail, that I was in fact a failure...that I'd never make it. They told me to just die, give up, shut up...go away.
Had I listened, I probably would've become the lady I spoke with that day. I decided instead to listen to my Daddy. He reminds me constantly that no matter what I'm going through, no matter what's happening around me His grace is sufficient for me. That I can do ALL things through Christ that strengthens me. I can be weak in Him because my strength is perfect in Him.
You don't have to have it together. It's ok to be flawed. You don't have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders...Christ did it for you. Accept His love for you, accept His plan for you...accept Him. Let Him carry you...
HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT.
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