By Tom Nuckels, Director of Spiritual Care Central Texas
One of the blessings in training volunteers and interns is to witness their joy as an outcome of their personal growth in coming alongside of others at the bedside. On many occasions I have heard people say, “I went in to visit a patient to encourage them, but I was the one encouraged instead.”
That is exactly what happened to me on a recent visit to a hospital in Austin. I had received a referral from the house supervisor to visit and pray for a patient in ICU. Afterwards, I checked in with the daytime supervisor to see if there might be another referral. She conferred with others and requested that I visit a patient we’ll call Bill. Bill was in his third month post-Covid, dealing with residual effects of the virus, including some respiratory distress, but was doing much better following his month-long stay in the ICU of an acute care hospital. Now in a long-term care facility, he was nearing the time of his discharge.
After introductions, I received a warm welcome from Bill. He was sitting on the edge of his bed and smiling. He inquired about my faith and church information and had a keen understanding of various Church of Christ traditions. A retired Marine, he also had experienced success in song writing. He asked if he could sing a hymn for me that he had composed. His wife stood by his side and sang beautiful harmony as he chorded a small travel guitar. Each line of the hymn was a verse of scripture. He shared hymns from various texts of the Psalms and one from John 1. I was struck by the melodies and the encouraging words which he had strung together in poetic form from each of the texts. It was clear that he had spent much time crafting each hymn.
If that wasn’t enough, Julie, his wife said, “Oh, since you worship with the Church of Christ, perhaps you know Duane Morgan?” I admitted that I knew of him and of his mission work overseas. We had both attended Sunset School of Preaching in the 70’s. Julie shared photos of his family and how she had been blessed by friendship with he and his wife.
As we concluded with prayer together, I thanked God for Bill’s progress of health, for his giftedness in song, for Christian friends and for mutual encouragement.
I have been a chaplain now for over twenty years, but I continue to be amazed at the serendipity of blessings that come in simple, yet profound ways that appear while holding space at the bedside of those who are ill.
“I was sick, and you cared for me…,” Matthew 25: 36