Sympathy Please

Today my job includes having to explain to a very childlike, mentally retarded 68 year old man that he can no longer receive meals on Thursdays because the volunteer that brings her little girls with her to deliver meals finds his pinup girl wallpaper offensive (even though he does have two newspaper clippings of Billy and Franklin Graham right in the center of one wall) and inappropriate and is convinced that when he invited her in to play with his toys, he wasn't referring to the rows of neat little cars and figurines lining the floor around his livingroom. Anybody want to trade?

Notice

I have decided to allow all of you "anonymous" readers to comment on my entries. This means you do not have to be a blogger to leave a comment anymore. However, you must sign your comments/let me know who you are for this to work. Otherwise, I will be forced to go back to allowing only bloggers to comment. Thanks for your participation!

What You're Missing

It's been a while since I've told a good case management story, but I want to let you all know what you're missing out on by not having a job that involves meeting old people in their homes. :-) Yesterday, I set up an appointment with a brand new client. Someone I'd never met before, an 82 year old woman who had two heart attacks and a stroke on the same day back in February. I knocked on her door at the appointed hour, and I heard a voice hollar "Come Innnnnn!" so I entered. As I stood just inside the door, said voice hollared again, "I'm in the bathroom!" I said, "Okay," in my most patient voice. Then the voice said, "I'm in the bathroom, you can come on back to the bedroom." Now, I happen to be quite familiar with these particular apartments, being part of a senior living residence and all, and I happened to know that there was a strong likelihood that the door between the bathroom and the bedroom was not closed. Maybe she's just washing her face, I thought. No such luck. I stepped inside the bedroom, and she kept talking, "Come on around the corner." Yup. Grandma was sitting on the toilet, grunting, and struggling to figure out her pull-ups. She held it up, squinting in the unlit bathroom, and looked at me. I tried to discreetly take a seat on the end of her bed and wait for her to make it into the bedroom to discuss our program. Depends are not in the job description!

Too Great Not to Post

How great is this?! ...

Take the quiz:
Which LOST character are you?

Hurley
You are Hurley Don't let your weight problem keep you down, at least your very fun to have around.

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!

Power of Prayer?

Tonight, I have the opportunity to share with our college/singles prayer meeting. I've been attending this prayer meeting for a few weeks now, and I'm still trying to figure out how to articulate what is on my heart regarding prayer itself. I noticed after the first week or two a sense of dissatisfaction as I left the meeting, but I had such a difficult time putting my finger on what the problem was. Last week, as I left, it came to me. I was bored! Bored. I was in a room full of other believers, joined to petition the King of kings for the needs and desires of my heart, and I was bored. There was no sense of power in the room as we moved down the list of prayer requests listed by our fellow class members on Sunday morning. As I listened to the words and voices of the others in my prayer circle, I wasn't sure any of us truly believed Anyone was listening as we prayed. I would dare say, none of us brought anything to that room that we were desperate about. We were not desperate to meet God or sense His presence, and we were not convinced that coming to him with any of those requests was going to make any difference in the situations mentioned. Oh, how sad He must be by such times. How I long to challenge that attitude and encourage my brothers and sisters to prayer fervently, patiently, to pray believing. Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God, but he who comes to Him must believe that He is and that He is a Rewarder of those who seek Him diligently." I want this group to be a faithful group of people God delights to Reward by giving of Himself! There is nothing boring about being in His presence. How I pray we will repent of that attitude and rejoice afresh in Him! Acts 3:19 says, "Repent, then, and turn to God that your sins may be wiped out and that times of refreshing may come from the presence of God." What more could we ask for?!

It is finished.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank my parents and each and every one of you who made graduation day such a special occassion for me. It was such a joy and privilege to celebrate with you. I cannot tell you enough how each of you has touched my life and made yesterday's achievement possible for me. I'm sure there's lots of mushy and probably some funny stuff I could write today about graduating from seminary, and that may happen in the days and weeks ahead, but today, I just want to say thanks and tell those of you who were here with me or left me notes and messages how very blessed I am to have you in my life. You are loved!