Get Se(n)t

"No one is SENT by accident to anyone"

Quick disclaimer: I was super excited to find this quote because it fits perfectly into what I'm saying in this post. As a person trying to be responsible for anything that I put on the internet, I looked up where it came from. It's from a book called A Course in Miracles. I have not read the book and am not supporting anything the book says. I'm just using the quote because I like it. Cool?

So. I am currently unemployed. That's weird. The longest I've ever been unemployed since the age of 13 was after I graduated from nursing school and was looking for a job. Looking back, it wasn't that long of a time. However, my family would attest that I didn't always handle that period of uncertainty very gracefully.....I distinctly remember lying facedown on the couch, despondent and loudly lamenting to the world that no one wanted me and I would never get a job.... Good times....

Anyway. All that basically to give you two announcements about getting SENT. 

1. I am fully funded! I received financial clearance from ABWE! I feel so incredibly blessed by so many of you. I shared in an earlier post that fundraising was the main reason I didn't want to go to Togo, so thank you for SENDing me, supporting me, encouraging me, and teaching me the lessons that I learned in this post. 

2.  I finished my last shift on the oncology unit yesterday. I am ready for the next phase of life, but it was bittersweet to say goodbye to the coworkers and patients that I've had the privilege to work with for the past 3 years. The SEND-off they gave me was way beyond what I expected. I got not just one, but TWO cakes in addition to lots of encouragment, really sweet cards, candy, and hugs. Thank you all so much. 

This brings me back around to my original quote at the beginning of the post. I'm sitting here unemployed for the next month and a half, and I have a chance to actually reflect on the last three years of work, the upcoming journey to Togo, and the concept of the word "SEND".

According to Google, send means "cause to go or be taken to a particular destination or direction"  The Bible talks a lot about sending and being sent. It is also a word that if you type it too often, you kind of forget what the word means and think it looks really weird. 

 Life provides the opportunity to make a difference in a person's life through the smallest interaction. It sounds cheesy, but I would like to think that at a small level I was purposefully sent to each of my patients for 8-12 hours a shift. Or maybe they were sent to me. I know it wasn't an accident that on my very last day of work I sat on the bed with a patient and held her hand and prayed with her. I'm thinking of all of the places I've been sent in my life, the people who have been sent to me, who are sending me, and to whom I will be sent. All this was designed by the One who sent Jesus and now sends us. It's not an accident. 

"Here I am Lord, SEND me"