I just got back from nine wonderful days away on vacation with my family. A journey back east. Beautiful scenery. Historic buildings and monuments. Time with people that I love and with whom I love to spend time.
However, I had a delivery the night before I started back in the office, an early morning meeting the following morning (cutting sleep down to about 4 hours) that ran over time, multiple patient to see in the hospital, a full schedule at the office, and lots and lots of stuff to catch up on. Honestly, when six pm rolled around, it was hard for me to remember, much less feel grateful for my time away.
Often, older people come in to me complaining of short term memory loss. It's the "Here-After Disease" -- where you can't remember what you came in here after, when you enter a room. Truth to tell, while I have a good memory, I am not a whole lot different when it comes to remembering why I should be thankful.
It is easy to read the accounts of God's miracles on the behalf of the people of Israel and wonder how they could complain the way they did. How could they gripe so much when they had been given a path through the Red Sea, water from a rock, and manna from heaven? Yet, it takes me only a few hours of work to wipe all thought of my past vacation away.
I am blessed in so many ways. One of those ways is in being able to take part in the family events -- life-changing moments in my patient's lives. Some of these events are heart wrenching and draining, some are amazingly joyful. But these are the things that motivate me to go back to my work, day after day.
I wouldn't change my job for anything in the world. Except, when I forget to be grateful.
"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." I Thessalonians 5:18
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