Monday, February 18, 2013

Don't Listen to Just Anyone

Sometimes you just have those moments.  Unfortunately, I had several of them Saturday morning at work.

Somehow I was convinced when I woke up Friday afternoon, preparing to work Friday night, that it was actually Saturday afternoon.  I was unable to completely shake that misconception all night long, which led to a series of actions which made me look completely and totally stupid, if not downright annoying.

Each night at work we have to adjust the staffing levels for the next shift according to the number of patients in the unit.  Sometimes the shift before us will preemptively decide which nurse will "take call" and stay home.  We aren't always sure if the nurse knows if she is to stay home or come in, so we call around 5:00a.m. to let them know. 

During the night we had experienced one of the very rare downtimes of our computerized documentation system. The same time we call to adjust staffing, the computers had come back up and we were putting in our documentation for the night.  The downtime, along with my misconception of the day of the week, is my excuse for what happened next.

Peggy had been marked to be "on-call" for the shift, not knowing if she knew, I called her to tell her, waking her up.  Peggy is one of those naturally good natured people and it's a good thing. 

Abut thirty minutes after I called Peggy, the Supervisor called to get our census and staffing and I looked at Sunday's staffing instead of Saturday's.  It was then I began thinking I had called off the wrong person.

I called Peggy again, who did not immediately answer this time, so I left a message to the effect she did have to come to work after all. 

It was not until I called Marcy to call her off, that the light bulb went off above my head.  It was indeed Saturday morning, not Sunday morning. Marcy was able to convince me that I had not only called Peggy in error, and called her in error as well.

So I once again called Peggy and left her another message:

"This is Frannie, I am completely stupid, don't listen to another message from me, and unless Karen (the other nurse working that night) calls you and tells you to come to work, STAY HOME!"

Later that morning, I received a text from Peggy stating that she found the messages hilarious and she was glad someone else did things like that as well.  As I said, Peggy is a truly good natured person.

My point in this long and embarrassing story is that we all encounter people in our lives who will tell us emphatically  that they know the truth for us, sometimes they may even tell us they know the Lord's truth for our lives, but in reality, they are themselves in deception.  I was certain I was in the right when I spoke to both Peggy (multiple times) and Marcy, but I was in a delusion regarding the day of the week.   What I was telling them could not be right because my most basic premise was not correct.

We do well to, as the Apostle John instructed us, to "try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world,"  (1 John 4:1) .  There are many who are quite sure they are right, who are deceivers, being deceived themselves. There are many who are powerful, who receive their power from another source.  There are many who seem to be bright talents, but beware for even for "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."  Let us remember that those who truly come as servants of the One great Master will bear the characteristics of His yoke:

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."  Matthew 11:29










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