Seeing the Face of Christ in Our Workplace--Friday, March 23

Ephesians 3:16-21

¹⁶I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, ¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. ¹⁸I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

During the years I've worked as a nurse in the hospitals, I've always received the most undesirable patients for my assignments.  I was working in the ICU unit in a hospital in Virginia. There would be days I would come to work and the girls would look at me and say "Boy, have we got a patient for you".  I would just smile and wait to hear about my new assignment. Sometimes I could smell the patient before I actually saw him. These patients were the undesirables of society. They could have been poor, homeless, addicted to alcohol or drugs, dirty, unkempt, smelly, have different types of drainage  from different places, dead bugs in places and at times had challenging personalities. Then there was the reason they were in the hospital.  But I cared for them all. One day one of my fellow nurses asked me how I did it. (I was assigned an unusually bad one that day.) I said "oh, it's easy." I just picture myself taking care of Jesus. When I see Jesus, all the smells and unpleasantness go away.  It's the least I can do for him after all he has done for me. I am filled with love and kindness when I take care of them. It is a privilege.  I love taking care of these patients. It may be the only love or kindness that has been shown to them in a long time.

Barbara Imbert

For reflection:

In what ways do your “roots in Christ” inform how you see your colleagues and/or customers?

How can love for Jesus “strengthen your inner being,” and propel you forward in tasks that would otherwise seem unsavory or undesirable?

What are, “the riches of Christ’s glory?” (v.16)