Obedience

Ever since my grandma first went into a nursing home I've had a heart for those people who never had anyone come to visit.  My family made sure to see her as much as possible, often resulting in a rotation where there was one person a day visiting her.  I cannot imagine losing your independence and freedom and being forced to live in one of those places (even if it's the nicest of places) for some time or the rest of your life.  I would be depressed, and friends and family visiting would lighten that just a bit.

I've always had a heart for older people.  Strangely enough I've had a heart for young people too, and seem to be able to relate to both groups exceedingly well...guess that middle group known as people my age takes a back seat to my charm.  Ha.

Anyway I've KNOWN for MONTHS now that I needed to be helping in one of the nursing homes around town.  Even as a group of girls got together and started going to one, I knew I should be a part of that.  And still, due to selfish reasons, I was not going.  It was too hard to go in there, to face my fears.  That was the last place I remember my grandma, most of those places are filled with people that are waiting to die.  And yet there are those who are in there for rehab and waiting to be released.  No matter what the case, my heart aches for the worst case scenario.  My heart hurts with the possibility of getting close to someone and then losing them so quickly.  It hurts at the thought of the possibilities of negligence in nursing homes across the country (my grandma's was probably one of the worst I've seen)...

All the injustice, loneliness...that's what brings me to a place of knowing I need to be involved.  My heart can't just break for these people and me do nothing about it.  Especially when fear is what holds me back (1 John 4:18a - There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear...).

So today I went to fill out my background check and would start volunteering next week or when school starts.  I filled it out, and was immediately asked to help later in the afternoon and then the next morning, and are weekends good for me?  Bombarded with opportunities to get plugged into that nursing home.  It was almost humorous, because I've been disobedient for so long that when I finally do go, it's as if God's filled in the Activity Director on this and they're both thinking: "finally!  Here's all the stuff we've been waiting for you to do."

Delayed obedience=disobedience.  And obedience is the way to go my friends.

Praise God for grace.

Off to do Bingo,
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