Waiting in the ER

I spent the latter part of my Thanksgiving Day at the ER, tending to my son's newly broken arm. After filing the necessary paperwork, I found a cup of coffee and began to wait. Across from me sat a beaten woman, consoled by her mother. She stared into space, no tears. To my left, a family of four waited. A man in his 40's sat with a shoulder injury, everyone fussing around him. The woman seemed panicked and the kids just pissed they had to be there or probably anywhere. To my right, a single mom chatted on her cell phone. Her daughter had been unable to sleep last night and she was a her wits end. Various people wandered in and out between smoke breaks. A large poster stated that in 2006, the hospital campus will be smoke free. At least 50% of the cohort I observed left for a smoke. What in the hell will they do in 2006? Go smoke in their car? As upset as people get, having to wait while someone they love hurts, I prefer that they be able to satisfy their nicotine habit.

As we move through life we tend to narrow our sphere. It starts in middle school with different tracks. College bound in high school. Majors in college. Professional school. Your sphere shrinks, further condensing your contact with those outside your frame of reference. Reality becomes restricted to a finite scope of self comfort. Our thankfulness can than easily move through pride, lest we pray more like a Pharisee than a tax collector.

O Lord, I thank You for all that You have given to me. I have been blessed this year and once again, I thank You for all the stuff You have provided. I thank You for my family and the stuff with which You have blessed unto them. I feel so sorry for those that are here with me, bless them with stuff like I have been blessed. Also, help them to make the right decisions next time so they can change their life and become blessed like me.

I was uncomfortable. The way to deal with that discomfort, is to distance their reality from mine. Heaven forbid I have no real control. God, I don't understand why I receive and others don't. I have no real control.