Think Again

The Intake Nurse, getting swamped from loads of arriving arrestees at the prison's yards, asked for help last Friday night. The charge nurse sent me from the Clinic to Intake to help her out.

A loud-mouthed man walked in with the cops to be screened. As I motioned for him to sit down so I could start screening him, he started stating that he had a history of 3 heart attacks.

“You did?” I repeated. “And last time you had it?”

“About 2 years ago.” What he said next silenced the Intake Nurse and I.

“I know how to get what I want. Just go man down,” he said smiling. [Meaning fake a medical emergency if he wanted medications or even just to be brought to the hospital].

We believed that. Knowing that deep in the nurses’ hearts, even if inmates were just manipulating the system, we had no choice but to give our utmost care. We shouldn’t judge but just do the best to treat any symptoms.

I finished all the questions, preventing myself from saying something that would be inappropriate. But I couldn't help but gave him an advice, as he got up to be booked:

“Don’t be so sure that they won’t know you’re faking a man down. When medical staff determines that it was fake, you will get in a deeper trouble.”

“Oh no! I won’t,” he answered with a wide grin. Deep inside, I knew he didn’t mean that. Because he knew what to do whenever he wanted something. He was in and out of the prison system that he learned many things that went on.

But one thing he didn’t know. In my charting as I opened a medical chart for him, I put an “alert” by writing what he just told me:

“Inmate stated that ‘It’s easy to get what he wants. Just go man down!”

Because when that time comes, medical staff would be more ready when this very same man would fake an emergency or not. We might not know. But the vital signs do not lie. He might fake a chest pain. But the EKG readings won’t lie. Xrays result would not lie.

He thought he was smart. He thought he could outsmart the medical staff. I was hoping he took me seriously and would think again.

Think again…That‘s what we must do when we evaluate our faith or belief in God. We can‘t outsmart Him. “For His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.” [Isaiah 55:8,9]. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our limitations. He sees everything. But He loves us and cares so much for us that even though He knows what‘s going on in our lives, He wants us to still seek Him and lay out everything on His feet. For He wants to help us as we submit ourselves in prayers, with a repentant heart, with a broken spirit. If we are full of pride, how can His love and grace fill us? We need to be empty in order for God to fill us. We need to show our reverential fear to God.

We must stop living a self-centered life. We must stop believing we are god or we have other gods that can’t help us. [Psalm 14:1 - “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”. They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.” -NIV].

Galatians 6:7 - “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows”. -NIV

Think again…Are we truly smart or actually “fools”?