My John 13 Moment

"When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.  Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

Picture this:

It's 3am. I'm walking into my patient's room to get a set of vital signs. She is on isolation because she has a very contagious skin disease. I get into my gown, booties, hair net, and gloves. I quickly get the blood pressure while the patient is still mostly sleeping and start to head back out to assess my other patients. My patient wakes up and asks me if she can go to the bathroom. I help her up and escort her to the restroom. She tells me it'll take a while so I take off all my gear and head out of the room. I'm about to walk into another patient's room when she puts on the call light. Sighing with exasperation, I head back into the room, once again putting on all of the isolation equipment. I am getting her back into bed when she asks me if she can wash up. I think to myself, "It's 3am! Who in the world would want to wash up at 3am?" In addition, she's not very steady on her feet, so I feel obliged to stay in the room to make sure she doesn't fall. I help her get the soap and water situated and remake her bed as she starts to get clean. 

    After I finish with the bed, I stand there as she takes her sweet time. She turns to me and says, "I can't reach my feet. Can you get them for me?" My honest feeling here was annoyance. At this point, I had been in the room for over 20 minutes and I felt like there were other things that I needed to do. I help her into bed and start to wash her feet. I tried to do it quickly and efficiently but then my patient asked me to do it again. I had to get down on my knees and start scrubbing her feet. 

    I'm going to confess to you some of my short comings. At times like this, I start having thoughts like, "I'm not your maid or your personal servant" "Can't this wait til morning?" "This wasn't in my job description" "Of course it had to be the isolation room" I was doing the act, but my heart and attitude were in the wrong place. My patient made a comment about how she wanted to get washed up while there was still someone who was willing to help her. 

    It was then that it hit me. This woman was the modern day version of a leper or an 'untouchable'. She was an undesirable patient. Nobody wanted to touch her. She had made a comment earlier about how another nurse had made her feel like she was a dangerous and disgusting thing. And there I was, kneeling at her feet at 3:30 in the morning, scrubbing her feet. Whoa. 

    Our current sermon theme is the book of John. We had just gone through John 13 where Jesus washes the disciples feet. Jesus tells them, "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." I had the perfect opportunity to be like Jesus, and I had almost missed it because of my surly attitude. What an amazing job that forces and allows me to humble myself every single day- to remember that my Lord humbled himself for me, and I am expected to do exactly the same. My attitude changed a little bit after that :)