Rainy Day Shepherding #12 & 35

December 12, 2007 at 9:37 am · Filed under Pastor, Shepherding and tagged: Pastor, prayer, Shepherding

Friends,

“Pastors are assigned by the church to care for congregations, not exploit them, to gently cultivate parishes that are plantings for the Lord, not brashly develop religious shopping malls.”–Eugene Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant, 135

Dave wrote from Indiana today. I am writing from Ohio. It’s raining in Ohio. It’s been raining all day. I had an early appointment with a friend and then I went to the school. In between the two, I went to a nursing home and visited with ‘Betty.’ I learned, for the first time, that she enjoys playing Scrabble. I promised that the next time I go visit her I am taking a Scrabble board and we are going to play a game. She promised not to beat me too badly.

After school, where I spent two and a half hours monitoring Junior High aged children, I went to another nursing home and visited Louise. The most alive thing in the nursing home was the giant aquarium full of fish. Four beds to a room, and a ‘client’ on each bed. Oxygen. Sleep. I walked by one lady who was pushing a walker, “Good afternoon,” I said. Silence. Not much noise in a nursing home. Another woman in Louise’s room was filling out a chair, sleeping hard, and sucking down a constant stream of oxygen. Another woman in the lobby was smiling and wrapped in a blanket.

It’s the hardest part of my job. I visited with Louise. She was taking a nap so I had one of the nurses awaken her. She won’t remember that I visited. I’m not even certain she knew who I was–although, she did ask me six or seven times how my family was. She is sweet and I enjoyed the 24 minutes that I spent with her.

What is amazing is that Louise had more to say to me than I did to her. She asked me more questions about my family than I could ask her about hers (she has none). She smiled as I uncomfortably made small talk, and listened intently as I read from Scripture, and bowed quietly as I prayed; she seemed reluctant to let me leave.

I wish I hadn’t. In her own blessed way, Louise ministered to me yesterday. Yesterday, in a way, she was the Shepherd and I was the sheep.

It rained and rained and rained yesterday. I have a suspicion that the rain that falls in December is somehow beneficial to crops, plants, flowers, and trees that will grow in May.

jerry

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