Holy Lord
About this time last Thursday night I was lying on a paramedic’s stretcher in the hallway of the St. Boniface Hospital Emergency Department. I had been transferred from the Grace Hospital when they found out that I needed my appendix removed that night. My condition had grown gradually worse. My heart rate was really high and they were pumping me with fluids to try and keep it down. The pain was terrible. The hospital was very busy and they had trouble finding someone who could give me pain medication.
I was alone and really scared. The pain was becoming harder to bear. I had been able to reason out God’s presence in the hands of the people who cared for me. I needed to feel Him. Lying strapped to a paramedic’s stretcher that is hard to do. It is hard to think about any prayer or way to call out to God. So I did what I could.
I begin to sing one of the first songs I learned as a Christian. It was the version of Holy Lord by Steve Bell. After a few times singing the song the nurse who had come with me in the ambulance came over to see if I was okay. My eyes were rolling back in my head and I guess I appeared to be muttering to myself. When I told her that I was singing she felt really bad. She was powerless to get me pain medication.
But I didn’t feel powerless. I could feel God’s presence. The pain medication didn’t come immediately but it did come soon after that. I also got a bed not much later. A couple of people came to see me before I went in for surgery that night. I no longer felt alone. I was still scared about the surgery but somehow I also knew I was held. Even if my appendix did rupture I would be okay.
I was alone and really scared. The pain was becoming harder to bear. I had been able to reason out God’s presence in the hands of the people who cared for me. I needed to feel Him. Lying strapped to a paramedic’s stretcher that is hard to do. It is hard to think about any prayer or way to call out to God. So I did what I could.
I begin to sing one of the first songs I learned as a Christian. It was the version of Holy Lord by Steve Bell. After a few times singing the song the nurse who had come with me in the ambulance came over to see if I was okay. My eyes were rolling back in my head and I guess I appeared to be muttering to myself. When I told her that I was singing she felt really bad. She was powerless to get me pain medication.
But I didn’t feel powerless. I could feel God’s presence. The pain medication didn’t come immediately but it did come soon after that. I also got a bed not much later. A couple of people came to see me before I went in for surgery that night. I no longer felt alone. I was still scared about the surgery but somehow I also knew I was held. Even if my appendix did rupture I would be okay.
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