On my shift at the hospital, I visited a man who had experienced a medical event. I did not check on his chart to see what it was. When I introduced myself as being from Spiritual Care he waved me off.
"No religion. I am Buddhist." I smiled, and promised not to bring up God. We could just talk.
He was a big man,
almost too big for the bed that held him. He told me that he was a dispatcher for the police.
"You'd be surprised how many people don't know where they are. How am I supposed to send a car?"
I was chagrined to remember the times I called John asking for help when I was lost, before GPS saved my skin.
"Where are you?" he would ask as he pulled out a map. I would offer lame landmarks, until he finally got
something actually helpful out of me. He never chided me.
Knowing where we are is helpful. So is knowing where we want to be. Recently, I have asked God for the chance to be more trusting. The very request implies that I am currently in the terrain of not quite trusting. Some of the landmarks are worry, and wanting to give advice.
I asked the large man if there was anything I could do for him before I
left.
"You can tell God I am sorry. For all of it. He knows what I mean."
"I have heard that He is forgiving," I said.
"Yeah, I've heard that too."
How about that. It sounds like he knows where he wants to go.