Staff Meeting

Why is that on staff meeting days I always feel like quitting? We spent an hour today watching a video of a guy talking about how to do a better job training, equipping, and mentoring staff to better serve patients. He was entertaining, he was funny, it was a worthwhile presentation. After that we talked about this book, 7 habits of highly effective people. It is a book full of truth about seeking what is important, valuing people, doing the important things and saying no to the unimportant, etc. And during the whole thing, I kept coming back to this:

I don't want to do this. I want to do something that is more significant than helping get kids scheduled for appointments.

That's not to diminish the value of kids getting to their appointments. I think Jesus called to take care of the weak, the poor, the voiceless, the little children. But I'm not helping them find Jesus and the answer he has. I'm helping them take care of their physical ailments. And here's the thing, every single one of them is going to die. Most of them won't die at our hospital, but they're all going to eventually die and I will have done nothing to serve their greater needs. My job actually prohibits me from trying to serve their greater needs. And so even while I help meet their needs now, I feel a great burden to do more all the while I am not allowed to.

I don't want to do this. I want to do something more significant than helping get kids scheduled for appointments that will do nothing to heal them of their most basic disease.

There's another thing that eats at me. We sit around and talk about the economi crisis that America is in and to some extent the world, but no one I know has volunteered to take any sort of a paycut to help out those who are going to be let go because of budget shortfalls.

I haven't either, so maybe I'm a hypocrit.

I don't have any resolution on this, but I feel like maybe this is an opportunity for a lot of people. It's an opportunity for us to place our trust in something more stable than the economy or a paycheck or a government or in our own ability to rake in a little cash. It's an opportunity for the church to show love to the people who are part of it by taking care of those that are suffering. (I don't mean the corporate church as an entity with a budget. I mean the church, the people, who care for their brothers and sisters in the way that Christ cares for us and gave himself up for us.)

What scares me about this economic crisis the most is for the truly poor of this world. As our nation turns more inward and focuses on our dramatic inability to pay for our luxuries there are a LOT of people who live on next to nothing and are dying for it. I think the number is something around 29,000 people who die everyday because of health issues related to hunger.

I'm part of the problem. I have a lot of debt and I feel an obligation to be true to my word when I signed up for that debt by paying for it. I feel handcuffed in my ability to help the people who are truly needy. I'm trying to sell stuff that is extra, pay debt, rid myself of selfish items, and be able to help, but I'm not having a great deal of success. For my birthday I asked my family to give gifts to the needy. My parents did and gave me a brocure about the group that buys children out of slavery, but my brother and sister (who make a lot more than my parents) didn't mention a thing. Should I ask them about it? What would I say?