Last Call

Yep, this is it. My final on call shift here at the hospital. It's not starting out easy: I've had two pages, so far, that have taken up most of my time since I got here at 8:30 this morning. That hope of a day without tears this week? I give up. If God wants me walking around dripping, I guess that's what I do.

But you know, this is the part of the work that I'll miss the most. I like my CPE group, but I'd be just as happy to meet for dinner and a movie, elsewhere. And verbatims? Ugh. You can have 'em.

But the patients... and the doctors, and nurses, and guards, and social workers, and plant maintenance, and the cleaning crew. I have had some amazing, holy encounters in this place. I have prayed, and been prayed for. At times I have spoken the Word that is laid upon my heart, and other times I have stepped back and let God speak in the silence. I have laughed until I was out of breath, and cried myself hoarse, and been stretched so thin that I didn't feel as though there was anything left.

And that's the point, isn't it?