Wondering about my Wanderings

Caregiving

Caregiving has a lot of angles to it. I was just called about a person being in the hospital who I was not going to be working with. One does not get paid when one does not work and people going to the hospital is one of those things that one has no control over and would wish the experience on no one.
With all that in mind, I like to see life through that window. I continue to struggle with how that would translate to being an effective pastor. As a pastor at the turn of the century, I enjoyed the idea of being a caring presence. Caregiving is a lot more about not being afraid to get your hands dirty, exposing oneself to sights and smells, lifting and at time dealing with anger that has nothing to do with the caregiver and still hurts.

I will preach in June sometime. I can hear myself telling the people to not speak until they listen for God's voice. My gut feeling is that for some people this can be an excuse for doing nothing. After all God would never speak to them. For others they would overfunction out of feeling of shame and guilt. God might git em if they don't. Maybe a class on caregiving can help. If you do not care about yourself how can you care for another. On the other hand if you cannot care for someone else where is God. After all it says in the good book that only when we do it to the least of these do we do it to God.