“You’re it! Sorry…” uttered the Charge Nurse as I was just arriving at work last night.
“Why?” I asked with a puzzled look.
“I don’t feel good, so I’m going home…”
“You’re ‘it’” meant I would be the Charge Nurse when she planned on leaving. She didn’t look good but she knew the responsibilities she was putting on my plate was enormous last night. She has not been feeling well but chose to come in, only to leave. That was difficult though. Because that would mean that she was shortening our number of staff to only me and just another nurse. Covering the entire correctional facility that housed 3,000 something inmates. That was huge! Not including the other jails in different cities that relied on us for any medical decisions.
I took a deep breath after she gave me the report. Everybody was feeling the tension at first as they knew it wasn’t easy what was being passed on to me. Yet, they saw me accepted it with calmness. I could have gotten upset. But my Big Boss reminded me “to be slow to anger“ [Psalm 145:8]. I could have vented out my complaint of that “being unfair”. But my Boss left a memo in my heart that He would “fight for me and I just needed to be still [Exodus 14:13]. I could have raised a white flag surrendering to the night’s massive piled up workload but my Boss insisted that I “shouldn‘t be afraid for He would help me…” [Isaiah 41:13].
And as promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us, the night went by smoothly despite the mountains of work. Everything was done before our night shift ended. There was a call-off but I managed to re-distribute the day’s staffing and had another nurse float to that facility that needed coverage.
I want to share and remind you, this is the reason why I continue to have courage working in this dark place:
Lord, thank You for always being there with me. Thank You for replacing my fears with courage. Thank You for replacing my weakness with Your strength. Thank You for replacing my complaints to gratitude. Thank You for covering me and my workplace with Your peace, despite the chaos I faced, along with my co-workers. Thank You for guiding me with Your wisdom to face those things that otherwise would have given me doubts and confusions. Thank You for giving me discernment to know what was the right attitude versus the wrong attitude. Glory to You Oh Lord. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
For other encouraging posts, please head over to Spiritual Sundays, hosted by sisters Ginger and Charlotte. God bless.
