Triple C News - October 9, 2021
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having a joy-filled day! And I hope…
“Hang on a sec…Joy-filled? Seriously, Tom? I mean, ‘joyful’ is reasonable…Or, ‘I hope you have some joy today…’ But ‘joy-FILLED’? Every second? That’s asking a lot!”
I can see that.
I mean, not EVERY second can be joyful, I guess.
Like, you have to sleep sometimes.
And the other night I had a dream where James Bond 007 was speeding in a speed boat toward a beach and I was afraid he was gonna crash but the boat just plowed through the sand till it stopped and he jumped out and ran off. I have no idea why I dreamed something as random and weird as that!
And it wasn’t a “joy-filled” moment by any means…
And to be quite frank, I’ve had to struggle a little more than usual for joy in my heart lately.
I wasn’t really sure why.
I thought…
“With this hospital continuing education thing I’m doing, I’ve had lots to do and that always makes me happy!”
“Time with the Lord in the morning? Check.”
“Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, so it’s not Him! It must be me!” I thought.
Then I remembered what I forgot to remember!!
Last year when we were getting used to the Coronavirus, lots of the news was anxiety-inducing…
“Is hand-shaking over for good?”
“Will we ever see the inside of a stadium again?”
“It will probably take five to thirteen years for a vaccine to be ready. But will it be safe?”
So in order to not leave a crack in the door of my heart to let any creepy anxiety creep in, I came up with three mottoes…
(are they mottoes?)…
Or better, six words to keep in my heart.
1) “No judgment”
2) “Cares to prayers”
3) “Today only”
(Hey! That’s seven words! I never realized that!)
1) “No judgment”…It helped me to feel peace if I determined to never criticize anyone about anything. I’m not sure why that is, but Jesus said “Don’t judge” so I figured He knows why it’s more peaceful to not!
2) “Cares to prayers”…Peter says “cast your cares on Him” so I tried to turn any anxiety thought (“cares”) into a prayer within 20 seconds.
3) And “Today only”… I focused on “today only”…
living one day at a time…
“giving no thought for tomorrow” as Jesus said…
and “forgetting what is behind” as Paul said!
In fact, two cups of “regrets about the past” (or fresh “shame” can be substituted if you’re out of regrets) and three tablespoons of “dread about the future”, stirring in one quart of cable news and you have the perfect recipe for anxiety!
So “staying in the day I’m in”, one day at a time, helped tons!!
“Am I forgetting one of those three??” I asked myself.
I’ve been working on “walking prayers”, talking to God while walking as things come up…
So “Cares to prayers” is good…
And in hospital work, it’s important to be an encouragement and blessing without criticizing anyone…
so I’ve got “No judgment” covered…
Wait!!
With all the assignments I’ve had to think about…that are due “next Thursday” or “next Monday”…
And having to remember what my schedule will be for church stuff and hospital commitments in the days ahead…
I’m thinking a lot about the future and the week(s) ahead and I forgot about…
“Today only”!!
God gives grace for today! And tomorrow He’ll give me grace for that day when it becomes “today”
So “today” was the only day I should have thought about yesterday. One day at a time!
One assignment that had me focused on the future, was getting ready for a big day coming up, which happened to be last Monday.
That Monday, I had to be at the hospital at 8:00am for classes until 4:00pm and then I had the over-night, chaplain on-call duty. Which meant that I’d be there from 8:00am to 8:00am!
There’s a place to sleep if you can grab some, but it’s busy at night with folks needing a chaplain in loads of places and cases!
We’re rarely up past 9:45 so I was honestly a little anxious, thinking ahead.
But, when that Monday finally came…
my classes that day were really interesting, with lots of stuff to learn!
And the on-call shift had me running around…all over the place… literally all night!
Trying my best to be a help and encouragement to everyone who needed some!
It was intense and emotional!
And when it was done, in spite of the fact that I’d been worried about it, I drove home sleepy and, strangely…happy!
And I could tell my joy was back.
“Hey, joy! Where you been, buddy?”
And then I knew!
With everything I had to do that day and night…
I’d been intensely focused…
for 24 hours…
on nothing but…
“Today!”