Was It Your Prayers That Did This?
One of the things I'm learning in ministry is that you can occasionally reveal your own distress to your congregants. Not too much -- not in a way that "dumps" -- and certainly from the pulpit there should be a careful management of the revelation of personal pain so that it's ultimately for them and not about you -- but they need to know that you're human and you don't always have superhero strength for your own life, even if you're 100% there for them.
So I had a massage yesterday - rescheduled from the day Erm was found so ill -- and was leaving the building when I ran into a congregant and her 1st grade daughter. We chatted about the newborn twins at home and after a nice brief conversation, I allowed as how I was on the way to the hospital to pick up the cat who had had a life-threatening upper respiratory crisis. We bid each other fond farewells.
I went and picked up Erm and $1600 later was on the way home with Miss-Meowing-In-The- Carrier (who seems to be doing marvelously well on prednisone and antibiotics. I dreamed that the hospital called to tell me that she died, but when I awoke she was on her blue mat on my bed, stretching and purring, lovely little being).
Later last evening the phone rang. It was the parishioner I had run into and she said she wanted to check in about the cat. I thought that was amazingly sensitive and sweet until I remembered with a flash that SHE AND HER WIFE ARE VETS!!!!
DUH!!
So they both spent time on the phone with me giving me their professional opinion and instructing me to bring Ermengarde's medical records over this morning -- in fact, one of the women's main practice is to give second opinions!! -- and they were just incredibly informative and said that if we wanted to do further diagnostics (including an $800 tracheal wash), they would just take her into the office and do it there.
I had to rather marvel at the good luck in this. How was it that I just happened to reschedule my massage to time my exit from the building to coincide with the entrance of a veterinarian from my church into the building? What was it that made me mention that I was on the way to the animal hospital?
This is one of those times people might say, "God works in mysterious ways."
You can go ahead and say it if you want. I could do a whole Jungian synchronicity thing or talk about energy fields or Pure Dumb Luck or some other theory of quantum physics (no I couldn't, because I don't understand it), but I think it's fine to just say, "God works in mysterious ways."
Time to give the cat her medication. We both slept a LOT last night.
So I had a massage yesterday - rescheduled from the day Erm was found so ill -- and was leaving the building when I ran into a congregant and her 1st grade daughter. We chatted about the newborn twins at home and after a nice brief conversation, I allowed as how I was on the way to the hospital to pick up the cat who had had a life-threatening upper respiratory crisis. We bid each other fond farewells.
I went and picked up Erm and $1600 later was on the way home with Miss-Meowing-In-The- Carrier (who seems to be doing marvelously well on prednisone and antibiotics. I dreamed that the hospital called to tell me that she died, but when I awoke she was on her blue mat on my bed, stretching and purring, lovely little being).
Later last evening the phone rang. It was the parishioner I had run into and she said she wanted to check in about the cat. I thought that was amazingly sensitive and sweet until I remembered with a flash that SHE AND HER WIFE ARE VETS!!!!
DUH!!
So they both spent time on the phone with me giving me their professional opinion and instructing me to bring Ermengarde's medical records over this morning -- in fact, one of the women's main practice is to give second opinions!! -- and they were just incredibly informative and said that if we wanted to do further diagnostics (including an $800 tracheal wash), they would just take her into the office and do it there.
I had to rather marvel at the good luck in this. How was it that I just happened to reschedule my massage to time my exit from the building to coincide with the entrance of a veterinarian from my church into the building? What was it that made me mention that I was on the way to the animal hospital?
This is one of those times people might say, "God works in mysterious ways."
You can go ahead and say it if you want. I could do a whole Jungian synchronicity thing or talk about energy fields or Pure Dumb Luck or some other theory of quantum physics (no I couldn't, because I don't understand it), but I think it's fine to just say, "God works in mysterious ways."
Time to give the cat her medication. We both slept a LOT last night.
posted by PeaceBang at 10:19 AM
7 Comments:
Amen. (And thank you, God!)
Go God! and, Go, Ermengarde!
God works in mysterious ways, yes She does! So glad this happened. Glory be, and Blessed Be too. (Tip of my Trinitarian Christian hat to my dear Wiccan friends.) Love to Ermengarde and to you. Hooray for peaceful and relieved sleep.
amen
Way to go, PB and Erm.
More about this on my blog.
Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.
HOORAY! Still praying for both of you...you've certainly been through a lot! Indeed, God works in mysterious ways.
Post a Comment
<< Home