The Goose and the Covid

Sometimes things on the farm go exactly like you hope they should. So good in fact that they actually surprise you. This is exactly what we hoped will happen. 

The plan: Arabelle will drive the goose back into the enclosure. Simply. Purely. Easily. 

Of course, this is rarely how things go. So much so that you can hear on the video the surprise in my voice when things go ... 

exactly like we hope they will.

 

I suppose LIFE is a lot like a farm. We have the way we hope things will go. We pray that they will go this way.

But it is life. 

And life rarely follows the plan.

Last night I had a talk with JB about COVID, and I asked him the question that I've put off asking him. 

"What," I began, "Is your greatest fear?"

He paused a minute and said, "I most worry that because we are so busy, I overlook something I normally wouldn't overlook. That we don't get to something we normally would easily get to. That I miss something and someone dies that shouldn't die."

Our family feels SO carried by prayer right now. So if you can pray for anything right now would you pray for the Lord's miraculous wisdom to be bestowed upon my husband? When he is in the Emergency Room, he is the only physician there. He is the TOP person in the "room." The "buck" stops with him. If something gets missed, in the end, it is "his fault."

My fear with COVID, in my mind, is really big. The fear is that patients won't get to John in time. That they will die waiting in the parking lot, the ambulance, the waiting room. I hear the stories of the psych patients that must be held there for 14 days. Patients that are threatening to try and give them COVID. Patients in the waiting room who are mad that they aren't being seen and threatening physical force. But these things are not actually what concern John the most.

think those fears, while possible and real, aren't the more "tangible" fears right now. For John, the fear right now is that he is ONLY ONE PERSON. And that the one person is a human being. And that human being is supposed to be able to pitch a perfect game every single night. 

Most nights, John actually pitches that perfect game. But COVID is making the likelihood of that more and more impossible. Less space. Less nurses. Less beds. Slower transfers. Sicker patients. Longer lines. Bigger burnout. Psych patients with nowhere to be transferred to. Nursing home patients.

These fears are real. 

My husband is truly the STRONGEST man I know. He is the SMARTEST man I know. Your prayers are SUSTAINING us. Will you commit him to prayer over the next weeks and months? Pray for all healthcare workers, but specifically, pray for my John and the doctors and nurses he works for. The nurses he works with are quitting rapidly. They don't get paid enough to deal with this stress. I cannot blame them. His fellow doctors are getting crabby and weary. There are only five full-time doctors that work there. Losing one (and heaven forbid two) would cause the system to completely fall apart.

Some days, everything goes exactly like it should.

And some days, COVID enters the picture. 

But either way, Christ is present.

And prayer is real.