Walking Through the Door

By Gabriel Fisher, Director of Spiritual Care – Dallas

Have you ever experienced the uncertainty that hangs in the air right before you knock on a hospital door? It’s a second where anything is possible. Will the person on the other side receive me well or will they send me away? What will I find? These questions typically occupy the minds of anyone beginning hospital ministries, but they can hover in the background for the experienced as well. How do we handle the uncertainty?

An experienced chaplain once told me that you answered your calling the moment you walk through the door. It is worth letting that idea sink in a bit. The fact that we chose to walk through the door already shows that we have answered God’s invitation to show up. I find a lot of assurance that I am not fully responsible for making something happen. I don’t have to cling to a sense of control. Instead, I’m shown the beauty of getting to partner with God in the completely unplanned experiences that come my way. The following story explains what I mean.

I met an older gentleman who was in the hospital with a family member. He had suffered a fall and was badly bruised all the way down his head and arm. This gentleman was quite confused and kept asking me where he was. As he tried to piece together his thoughts, he managed to tell me several times that he was scared, which was completely understandable. In my mind, this situation was the main reason I was there. However, an unexpected side-conversation developed with the man’s sibling who was standing at the bedside. This brother (we’ll call him Jeff) filled in the gaps of their experience but also his brother’s faith. He told me that his brother would love a prayer. What makes these details worth telling is that the older gentleman was Church of Christ, but Jeff was not. He didn’t share our views, but he also did not shy away from the topic. He was curious and appeared increasingly interested in sharing his own spiritual journey and thoughts about God. Jeff was a man who was hungry to talk to someone about faith. Who could have planned that the time would arise during a side-conversation in a hospital room?

This is a story from the hospital, but the message reverberates throughout church life. We are not responsible for making something happen. There is confidence in welcoming whatever God sends our way. I believe this idea relates to how we care for our own members as well as how we show hospitality to the stranger. How do handle uncertainty? I believe we start by looking for where God is already sitting in the room.