Don't Make Me Come Down There...

Remember when you were a kid and you ran in the hallway at school and when the teacher saw you they made you walk back to where you started and do it all again walking? For me, it was an annoying lesson on how to not get caught running in the school hallway. Someone was forcing you to slow down when you were in a hurry and even though it was rooted in a rule to keep you from getting hurt... it was annoying. I experienced what I would consider the adult version of that this week.

I was scheduled to get off work at 3pm on Tuesday and I had just about every minute of that time off scheduled with chores that needed to get done. Of course, there were also a lot of things that I simply wanted to get done. Either way... I had things to do. However, all my plans went up in smoke as I was putting my stuff away at work. My aunt and cousin were sending my text messages and leaving me voicemails freaking out about how they needed me to go pick up my grandpa at the hospital. Grandma had passed out and was taken to the hospital and since they didn't yet know what the problem was or if she could go home... someone needed to take grandpa back to the house and sit with him since he can't really be left home by himself for too long. It needed to be done, and it needed to be done by me.

Honestly, I was irritated. I had all these plans and I had convinced myself that it was important. Then all the sudden all these people need me to drop everything just to go sit.

I went to the hospital and picked up my grandpa took him back his house. The plan was we were going to sit there and read until someone called to tell us whether grandma would be coming home or not. Yet again, the plan didn't go off the way I would have ideally planned. Grandpa wasn't reading... he was talking to me which meant I wasn't reading, I was listening. Sitting still and listening isn't really my thing so I was kind of dreading the idea of spending the afternoon/evening doing it. Yet, as I sat there I kind of realized that it was what was really important at the time. I was helping out my family and spending time listening to grandpa tell his story of being in the army, going to war, and how grandma had waited for him to get out of the army. It was a sweet story and I was really grateful to have been there for him to share it with me. In the end it all worked out. Grandma was released from the hospital and we picked up sandwiches and took them back to the house and had dinner together just the three of us.

Although it kind of sucked that it took grandma passing out to force me to stop and spend actual time with my grandparents, I'm truly grateful that it worked out. The day before I had read an article in a Christian magazine that had been delivered to the bank I work for. It was an articles written by a woman who realized that God wanted her to slow down. Take the time to focus on one thing at a time instead of being partially in the moment while thinking about else should might be missing elsewhere. I recognized myself in the article and promised to take it to heart, but I am also the kind of person who needs to be given a gentle nudge. I consider that day to be God telling me that the lesson in the article was relevant to me and I wasn't exempt from the need to slow down find perspective on what's really important. That day I didn't just learn from grandpa's stories but I learned to be open to going with the flow. What I have planned, often isn't nearly as important as I think. I got a lesson in patience and priority that afternoon and I thank God for that.