Patient

I was in the hospital doing my ward visits in my role as Chaplain. I stop and talk to anyone who wants to chat. Some do. Some don’t. Often I’m quite a disappointment. I don’t wear a dog collar like some of my colleagues, so there’s no give away that the Chaplain is approaching! And so some people think I’m the doctor. And everyone is waiting for the doctor. Some even think I’m the consultant (even the staff). So when they realise I’m not a doctor, but a Chaplain, they are disappointed! I assure them they really wouldn’t want me as their doctor. And then I ask them how they are. Some folks want to answer and some don’t. I get a pretty good idea fairly quickly if a patient wants to talk. But I’m not always right. Like the visit to a chap last week. At first he was evasive and shut down the conversation. Then he suddenly asked me about a footballer he’d heard me talking about to another patient. And suddenly we were away. He had an real interest in sport and we got chatting about all the things he’d done. Turns out he was good footballer, a coach, and a counsellor for people with sporting injuries. I took the opportunity to talk about my dodgy football knee and soon found myself being the one who was accepting the help! At one point I thought he was asking me to hop up onto his bed so he could take a look at knee and apply his particular form of treatment. Actually he didn’t do that (which was a relief as I was beginning to wonder what this might look like to others on the ward). But he did refer me to his counselling service and recommend a book about golf. I left with his card and some information as to where I could follow this up if I wanted to. And here’s the thing: I was supposed to be the one helping him! We are encouraged to be the ones who “give” believing it is better to give than to receive. But it can be much harder to be the ones who are receiving. And especially if it comes from someone we are trying to help. Perhaps part of humility is not to put ourselves above others so that we cannot receive from them, whoever they are. Perhaps God can speak through people who we have written off or judge to be more in need of help than we are. I walked away from that bedside wondering how many times I haven’t received a gift from God because I could see past my own need to give. Maybe sometimes I am the one who needs to receive. Even when it might come from a most unlikely place.