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A Holy Morning

4/30/2015

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© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
I sang hymns for ten minutes this morning, before deciding that no one was coming to the Chapel service.  Carefully, I carried the autoharp, communion set and books back to my office.  When I arrived, a young couple greeted me from the hospital exit.  “It only took a half hour this time, instead of all day,” said Joe.  Realizing that they recognized me, I interacted delicately, hoping to remember our prior encounter.  Soon it was clear.  This was Joe and Joan.  They were playing Backgammon in Joe’s room when I met them a few weeks before.  He had come to the hospital this morning to have his white count checked.  He was completing chemo to treat his newly diagnosed Acute Leukemia.  Only in his 30’s, this was devastating news, and they had invited me into their private pain during my first visit.

“We heard the announcement about church this morning.”   “Yes, but no-one came, so we’re through early.”  “I’d like to have Communion,” said Joan.  “Certainly.  Come into my office.”

We sat around my table and talked while I prepared Communion.  “This is another miracle,” said Joan.  “Last Sunday at our church, they didn’t have Communion.  They seem to be more concerned about getting through in an hour.  I’m so glad we saw you.”  I soon learned why it had been so important.  “My white count is at absolute zero this morning.  We can’t go to church any more.  It would be too dangerous.  I could catch anything.  Yesterday we had a miracle too.  I was driving to my office to get all my things, when we passed my business partner.  We both stopped, and he came over to help me pack up.  I’m taking a year’s leave from my company to focus on beating this disease.   If I hadn’t seen him, I might not have seen him for a year.  We have rented an apartment in Denver, so I can get a bone marrow transplant.  Right now they are looking for a good match.  A lot of people are praying for me, and I know it is helping.”

We sat             at the table, and I said, “I’d like to share the story I was going to tell at the service this morning.”  I proceeded to tell about another young man who would have died without immediate surgery after his colon exploded.  He had called me in the middle of the night to share his joy, after having his colostomy reversal that day.  He needed to share with me his spiritual journey since the surgery.  Out of his physical and spiritual crisis had come a literal resurrection – a new beginning of body and spirit.  “A health crisis,” I said, “is an opportunity for a deepening of the spirit, and a reprioritizing of life.”

Then we prayed, and shared Holy Communion.  “The body of Christ, given for you.”  “The Blood of Christ, shed for you.”  It was a holy moment.  As they left, they were smiling and re-energized to face the new journey that faced them.

Why do we have a church service in the hospital?  It is for moments just like this.  Moments of Grace in the midst of unexpected life-disrupting turmoil.

 

Rev. Dr. Rolf V. Brende, D. Min., B.C.C. Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 7 (2009).

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Life

4/29/2015

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Picture
© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is costly, care for it.
Life is wealth, keep it.
Life is love, enjoy it.
Life is mystery, know it.
Life is a promise, fulfil it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.



Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 7 (2009).

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Ain't

4/24/2015

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
This poem was sent to me by a dear friend who knows all about God’s presence. For my wife and me it is especially meaningful. I hope it is to you. God was present at the hospital where I worked, in the patient’s rooms, in the operating room and in the waiting room. His presence is our comfort and our strength.










AIN'T...

He was just a little boy,
On a week's first day.
Wandering home from Bible school,
And dawdling on the way.

He scuffed his shoes into the grass;
He even found a caterpillar.
He found a fluffy milkweed pod,
And blew out all the 'filler.'

A bird's nest in a tree overhead,
So wisely placed up so high.
Was just another wonder,
That caught his eager eye.

A neighbor watched his zig zag course,
And hailed him from the lawn;
Asked him where he'd been that day
And what was going on.

'I've been to Bible School,'
He said and turned a piece of sod.
He picked up a wiggly worm replying,
'I've learned a lot about God.'

'M'm very fine way,' the neighbor said,
'for a boy to spend his time.'
'If you'll tell me where God is,
I'll give you a brand new dime.'

Quick as a flash the answer came!
Nor were his accents faint.
'I'll give you a dollar, Mister,
If you can tell me where God ain't.'

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 7 (2009).


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Sunrise, Sunset

4/23/2015

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
One of the benefits of moving to the coast of Florida is sunsets. Now central Alabama had sunsets too, it’s just that it was harder to appreciate them. The hills, trees, and houses got in their way. But when we first moved to Florida we would drive to the beach and walk while watching the sun slowly descend until the red ball finally dipped below the horizon. The sky was often filled with colors that otherwise might clash. There were purples, oranges, pinks, and blues, set against the white or gray clouds. We joined many others who would even bring their beach chairs to sit and quietly and reverently mark the passing of another day.

There’s something about sunsets, though, something rather melancholy. Sunsets signify the ending of a day, and metaphorically, perhaps the ending of hopes, or dreams, of things left undone. It is too late to go back and do what you should have done that day. Like the buglers “Taps,” it says that “day is done, gone the sun . . .”

As you watch the sun disappear from sight, somewhere far across the ocean, it is rising to bring the bright light of a new day. Someone is watching the different colors of the morning sky. They will watch as the great yellow ball rises higher and higher in the sky to bathe the day in the light of newness and hope. For a new day brings new possibilities and new opportunities. The past is replaced by potential.

There is a Scripture that says, “Walk while you have the day, for night is approaching when no man can work.”

Remember, for every sunset, there is a sunrise.

© 2009, John C. Fitts, III.  All Rights Reserved.  Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 7 (2009).


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The Journey is the Blessing

4/21/2015

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Picture
© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.


The following Grace Drop was written in 2009:

Last Wednesday, the day before her surgery, Patty happened to look at the first volume of Grace Drops, since I had just printed a new batch and the color had been enhanced. As she handled the book it fell open to this story. Considering the recent course our lives had taken and what she faced the next day, she was overwhelmed at the seeming coincidence and import of these words. We both read the story again with new insight and meaning:

For most of our lives we are consumed with preparation and thoughts and dreams about what we will become. At a young age we start seeking answers to the question, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" Education and experience come in stages, each getting us ready for the next phase. By middle age many have still not found an adequate answer. 


Last year I read a book by Lisa Wingate that profoundly influenced my life. Entitled Tending Roses, it is not a book that normally would grab my attention. But at the suggestion of my wife, who knows me so well, I opened it and was captured. The opening paragraph hooked me.

"Indian wisdom says our lives are rivers. We are born somewhere small and quiet and we move toward a place we cannot see, but only imagine. Along our journey, people and events flow into us, and we are created of everywhere and everyone we have passed. Each event, each person, changes us in some way. Even in times of drought we are still moving and growing, but it is during seasons of rain that we expand the most—when water flows from all directions, sweeping at terrifying speed, chasing against rocks, spilling over boundaries. These are painful times, but they enable us to carry burdens we could never have thought possible . . . Floods are painful, but they are necessary. They keep us clear and strong. They move our lives onto new paths."

Patty was encouraged by reading that the days ahead may be difficult and even painful, but they will not be without purpose



© 2009, John C. Fitts, III.  All Rights Reserved.  Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 7 (2009).


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Don't Wait

4/20/2015

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Picture
© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.


Don't wait ...

Until your car or home is paid off 

Until you get a new car or home 

Until your new job comes along 

Until your kids leave the house 

Until you go back to school 

Until you finish school 

Until you lose 10 lbs.

Until you gain 10 lbs. 

Until you get married 

Until you get a divorce 

Until you have kids 

Until you retire 

Until summer 

Until spring 

Until winter 

Until fall 

Until you die... 

There is no better time than right now to be happy.

 Happiness is a journey, not a destination.


© 2009, John C. Fitts, III.  All Rights Reserved.  Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 7 (2009).

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    Author

    John Fitts is a retired hospital chaplain and a contributor & publisher of Grace Drops. John lives in Palm Harbor, Florida with his artist wife, Patty. 
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