Hope Is Only On His Hands

Sundays are a special time to gather for many of us in this special place. Please visit Spiritual Sundays and be encouraged by many posts. A special thank you to sisters Charlotte and Ginger for hosting this place. Exciting, we're beginning a new year!


His trembling hands were resting on the arm part of the wheelchair. He was just brought to the county’s ER because of his chest pain. Upon arrival, he changed his mind and signed an “AMA” [against medical advice]. Those same hands that committed big robberries and other crimes were now weakened by his cancer that metastasized all over his body organs.

Nearby, an upset deputy who took his time to escort him to the ambulance, carefully removed the chains around his ankles, with his gloved hands. Same hands that would be ready to protect the staff from disrespectful inmates.

Nurses were busy typing with their weary hands. Both of them obviously upset why this inmate refused the treatment when they knew that he was very fragile when it came to his health.

I took a box of tissue with my tired hands, too. Tired from helping our medical secretaries with paperworks that were piling up for them. I took a few, thin tissues and gave it to this inmate to wipe out the tears slowly forming in his blurry eyes.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am. I had to sign an AMA. I didn’t want to miss my first visit today,” he softly uttered.

“You have the right to refuse, Sir,” I replied. “It’s just hard because there is no doctor here around this time. That’s why they needed to send you to ER.” “I’ll have our jail doctor see you in the morning.”

He slowly pushed the wheels forward with his aged hands. Trying to have the same rhythm to make the wheelchair go faster. Until the big metal door closed behind him...

Our hands tell so much about us. They tell life’s adventures. They gain victories. They cause failures. They help. They create. They bless.

It is known that we can live for 40 days without food, 3 days without water, and 8 minutes without air. But we cannot live one second without hope. When the disciples heard that Jesus died, fear replaced their hope. Until Jesus came back - alive from the dead! And He comforted them by showing His hands and feet. Thomas missed the resurrection and would not believe if he wouldn’t see and feel [John 20:25]. But a week later, Jesus appeared again and Thomas was there in that room. And Jesus said [John 20:27]:

“Put your finger here and see my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

And Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord, my God!” [John 20:28]

Hope…that never dies…is on Jesus’ hands… "Just believe!"

The Best New Year's Resolution!!!

“Ma’am, he started hitting his head on the glass window in the squad car as soon as I entered the jail’s yard,” uttered the arresting officer to me and the LVN who tagged along with me, wanting to see some actions at the jail’s Intake.

There he was, a middle-aged man, with slightly reddish eyes but the red streak across his forehead stood out more. He was very upset!

“Aaarrggghhhh!” he screamed as he stomped his feet on the cold ground inside the “Sobering” cell. He stopped when he saw me, the LVN, and the 3 deputies with us nearing the big glass window where he was. He sat still, stopped screaming and stomping. I could sense he was drunk but still was coherent enough to know what was going on.

The deputy slowly opened the heavy, metal door. 2 of them went inside first to determine if it was safe for me and the other nurse to talk with him and check his vital signs. He was cooperating at that time.

I took his radial pulse. “120 beats per minute”. He denied using street drugs. I could hear his deep, loud sigh, an angry kind of rhythm, as he stared at the cop who arrested him. I had the LVN took his blood pressure. “160/90,” she stated as she glanced at me, waiting for my signal that I would not accept the inmate for a racy pulse and high BP. But not yet.

“You need to calm down!” I commanded to the man.

“Can’t you see? I’m trying to calm down! Aaaaarrrr…” he replied with an angry tone and took another penetrating glare toward the arresting cop.

“How can you calm down when you remained angry this whole time? Just answer me. Why were you arrested?” as I raised my voice slightly higher but with a respectful way.

No answer…For 1 minute…He let out 2 long, deep breaths.

“More,” I told him. And more deep breaths, he did…Still. No answer. Then, I turned to the LVN and requested for her to take his BP again. “140/88,” she said smiling at me. She couldn’t believe that his BP would become lower in a matter of few minutes.

“Give me his health screen paper, Officer. Let me sign it, so you can book him now.”

“Thank you so much, Ma’am,” he replied with an obvious expression of relief that he didn’t need to bring his arrestee to our main prison. And the man remained still. He was not hitting his head anymore. He was quiet and appeared to be contemplating the answer to the question I posed.


He was caught driving drunk. I don’t know how many times. Yet, every time he is arrested, he gets angry. But he caused this to himself. Year after year, he is trapped in that same habit.

How is it different with our New Year’s Resolutions? We try to improve things in our lives, year after year, only to become angry and disappointed as nothing new happened around December time. We put out the best goals we can think of and become determined to complete them. Still. We fail. Then, we’re angry.

Let’s stop resisting the Authority. When He finds us, don’t get angry at Him. He just wants the best for you. He doesn’t want you to get hurt. And as for us who had yielded to His power before, we still fall into sin. We become proud of the things we have accomplished. Forgetting it was not our strength that did that. But His grace. How far have we, believers or non-believers, have turned away from the Authority wanting us to be successful?

There is this NUMBER 1 resolution that we must aim for: To turn back to God, repent for our sins and walk humbly with Him, not only for this year, but for the rest of our lives. We are all familiar with this verse:

2 Chronicles 7:14 - “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.”

But have you read verse 15-16?

15 - “I will listen to every prayer made in this place, 16for I have chosen this Temple and set it apart to be my home forever. My eyes and my heart will always be here.”

Let’s all stop resisting the Authority. Sit still. Contemplate on humbling ourselves by admitting our sins, praying to God for His forgiveness and seeking Him continually and turn away from our sinful behavior. This is the best goal we can all achieve, not only for the year 2010 but for the rest of our lives.

Because true repentance is beyond all these words. It is changed behavior.

Friends, the Lord brought this to mind, many hours after I had already posted this[added at 0815 hrs.]:

³³But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides." ~ Matthew 6:33; AMP.

Discernment

A whiff of freezing cold air entered the small Intake area when 2 police officers brought in a drunk male arrestee. Speaking in another language, the same officer interpreted for me. He just answered “no” to all of the questions I asked if he had any mental or medical problems. It was to determine if he was medically or mentally fit to stay in the jail.

He approached a nearby wall to be searched by our prison's deputies for any dangerous things like drugs or weapons. I stopped our deputies right there because if I didn’t want to admit that arrestee, their search would be useless. The officers and our own deputies were amazed and were all wondering why I did that.

I asked the interpreting officer to continue to interpret for me.

“Pull up your right pant leg!,” I ordered.

Intoxicated, he could barely understand my command on top of the language barrier between us. As his breathing was let out and alcohol reeked in that tiny space. He ended up kneeling down on the floor to remain stable and slightly pulled the pant leg up. His black sock was knee-high…He got back up again as the officers’ eyebrows were still raised and with confused look painted on their faces, kept staring at me, but seemed to be hesitant to question my actions.

“No, sir! Get back down and pull up your pant leg and pull down your sock!” I commanded again.

As he struggled to prevent from falling, he slowly lowered his right leg sock. A draining abscess or wound emerged into everyone’s view. The tissues around it was very red, swollen and some tissues were already turning black. This meant he has a massive infection going on, on that leg.

“Eewww…What was that?”, asked one of our deputies, as the arresting officers both let out a deep breath. They both knew what it meant. I wouldn’t accept their arrestee. They needed to bring him now to the county’s hospital to be treated before bringing him back to the county’s main correctional facility, not to the one I was working in that night.

The deputies working with me smiled at me and asked, “How did you know that nurse? That was awesome!”

“It’s a gut feeling,” I answered as I went back to the prison’s Clinic.

"Thank you, Ma'am," uttered one of the police officer.

"You're welcome and please stay safe out there," I hollered back.


A gut feeling…Learned by years of experience. To see beyond what is obscure. We need discernment, too in our spiritual walks. But it is important that we must judge or discern things properly. In everything that we do, it’s clear that we must judge properly even before we act. That’s where discernment comes. I pray the Lord will give us all, His children discernment so that we can become effective in whatever ministry we are assigned with. We must be willing to ask, wait, listen to Him so we can gain discernment. Then we can know what God also has willed for us.

James 1:5 - “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given unto him.”

Isaiah 11:2-3 - “The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord - and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears.”

1Corinthians 6:2-3 - “Do you not know that God’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge the trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!”

He Is Here

“Merry Christmas!” as I gave a small bag full of candies and other goodies to one of the LVN’s who was newly-hired and I just met few nights ago. She was surprised and didn’t know what to say at the beginning. Surprised that I had given her something, like with everyone else though I just met her.

Smiling, she softly answered, “Oh! Thank you so much! That’s so sweet of you. And Merry Christmas to you, too.”

That was the last time I saw her that night. As she was scheduled to go home at the wee ours of the morning as soon as she got done passing her medications to the inmates. She was just helping the shortage they had from the PM shift that day.

Until….that day I became anxious somewhat when I found out that I needed to float to another facility where I had not worked in a long time. I remembered a few responsibilities. But some slowly slipped away as I wasn’t scheduled there most of the time.

Feeling a little better after your prayers were lifted up [thank you friends and awesome intercessors!], my heart was anticipating a night of unexpected busyness, of emergencies that might occur at any time, of arresting officers who would get upset with me when I couldn’t admit the arrestees they would bring into this facility with a major medical or mental issue, knowing that it was mainly for Federal inmates.

My worried look was sensed by the PM nurse I was relieving. She was upset, too as she was ordered to float when she was already working at the main facility, when the scheduled nurse had called in sick. She didn’t know the facility well. I did, except it was just a matter of remembering things. Not a few. Lots.

“Hi” a soft greeting cut through our conversation. I turned to where the upbeat voice came from to see who that one was. It was B! The LVN I just met and had given a small gift!

“Oh, hi B!” I exclaimed. “I’m so grateful you’re here. But when I called the charge nurse prior to coming here, she told me you’re leaving early though.”

“Not anymore!” she quickly replied. “It’s you working tonight and I’d rather stay here with you if you need help!” she added.

I called the charge nurse. And because she knew that I was always flexible and always tried to be productive, she granted the LVN’s request to add few more hours even though it would be overtime. This financial mess also affected the county’s budget. So they are always careful to grant overtime hours. It wasn’t only 1 or 2 hours. It was until the morning, 6:30 a.m. to be exact. Which meant I had somebody working with me, until the day shift LVN arrived! Glory to God!

My anxiety was fully gone by now as I uttered a silent “thank You” in my mind. The night was quiet except for occasional interruption from their small Intake as I screened arrestees. I refused 2 but the officers never got upset. They accepted my decisions without any complaints. Not typical for tired officers wanting their arrestees to be booked right away so they could leave sooner.

The day shift nurse arrived on time. 6:30a.m. Because it was different there. They would start early so they could leave early. Everything was prepared for her. We were happy to see each other because we worked for a while before and both of us got hired the same time, 9 years ago.

“Go!” she commanded. “You’re done! Go home and rest now. Thank you for filling in,” she stated.

“Are you sure?” I replied.

“Yes! Go home! You always do extra here and that is enough,” she said smiling.

I accepted the offer. The heavy metal door popped open. It felt so great to be able to get done with my work, thinking it would be a nightmare. That was wrong for me to do! The cold air hit against my face. But I felt a certain warmth around me. A loving protection that had surrounded me all night long.

I started the car’s engine as I caught myself praying: “Thank You Lord. Forgive me for not trusting completely in You. I magnified my worries, instead of magnifying You. I thank You for answering my prayers. I thank You for all of my precious friends and prayer intercessors You placed in my life. Their friendship has been a great blessing, Lord. But I ask that You bless them back. Because of their prayers, I became strong. Because of their love, I remained unafraid. Because of their intercession, You came in the midst of us! And that’s what made it all possible…Because You are our Shield! Our Refuge! Thank You Lord for reminding me to trust in You 100% this night. I love You Lord!”




I hit the freeway, enjoying the gray skies. But in the nearby horizon, a few rays of the sun was peeking through. How easily I had forgotten… That we have this Light that is inside of us, no matter what time of day, no matter what the season…The Light that reminds us to stay strong despite the raging storms we face. The Light that makes us joyful no matter what circumstances we are surrounded with. The Light that is hungry to be reflected to those living in dark places. The Light that guides when we are lost. The Light that doesn’t end…He is here…Inside in each of His children…In our midst when we gather together. He is here…


Whenever I see sunbeams coming through clouds, it always looks to me like God shining himself down onto us. The thing about sunbeams is they're always there even though we can't always see them. Same with God. ~Adeline Cullen Ray

Are you wrinkled with burden? Come to God for a faith lift. ~Author Unknown