By Greg Schmidt, hospice chaplain
A few weeks ago, while relaxing in my lawn chair at a heavily wooded Oklahoma campsite, I couldn’t help but look up occasionally. And through the branches, just beyond the leaves that were being playfully tossed and twisted by a gentle breeze, was a gorgeous aqua-marine sky!
In those moments, I felt close to the Creator. I began to wonder, “Are you the God of the sky? The really big things in life? The God that seems far away? Or are you the God of the tiny – sometimes almost hidden – spaces? The cracks and crevices between the leaves and limbs? The small things in life? The God that feels close?”
Theologically speaking, I know the answer is “both.” But I would have to say that it’s when I discover God in the cracks and crevices – the tiny, small, close things — that I appreciate His power, majesty, and love the most. Why? Because when life is going good, and I am seemingly flying above the fray without anything or anyone to block my vision or so much as slow me down, I’m not really searching for a “Savior.” In those moments, my pathetically poor brain foolishly suggests, “I can make it. I’m strong! I’m free! I don’t need anyone else!”
But when my life is fragile and tangled up, even if only a little, I begin to frantically search in the cracks and crevices for the Helper.
Sometimes it feels like our ministry at Heart & Soul Hospice is “a ministry in the cracks and crevices.” We are there in the small things … while participating in a very big event in the lives of our patients and families. We provide hope, love, and care, beyond the situations and systems that otherwise block one’s view of the greater, beautiful expanse just on the other side. We are very aware that we are not God. And at the same time, we are also very aware that we are His hands and His feet. We’re never alone, nor are we “Lone Rangers.” We go where God calls us. We provide a “cup of cold water” in His name. We walk alongside newfound friends – called “patients” and “families” – who sometimes suddenly feel like our family.
How does that happen? In the small things, the cracks and crevices, like the folds of a warm wash cloth or a moist mouth swab, or in the creases of an expanding blood-pressure cuff, or at the end of a stethoscope, or between the pages of a Bible or book of poetry or a favorite magazine, or in the warmth of a hand that reaches out to caress the hand of another. God is there – as is Heart & Soul Hospice – to be present and demonstrate how much we care, because God cares!
We’re not here to be heroes. We’re here to be servants. We’re not here to have our pride filled up. We’re here to have our lives poured out.
Want to join us in ministry? We are searching in the cracks and crevices for individuals with like-minded hearts, hands and feet. We see and experience God in the big and the little things we do in His name. Are you? Come walk with us!