Yet Another Weekend Getaway-Part 3

"New" After six days in the hospital, I was transferred to a rehab facility Wednesday night. It was about 8:30 pm. Too late for an official welcome. And the grand tour. A nurse does come in to check me out. It's getting late and later. I encourage my Sweetie to go home."Get some rest!" She's exhausted. Worrying about her crazy husband, who's been in the hospital 4 times in the last 6 months.

I've been to this rehab place before. As a pastor, visiting church members. But it's really weird to be here as a resident! I wake up Thursday morning. "Okay, what now?!" I manage to get into a wheelchair. When your leg has hardly moved for six days, it sure feels freeing to get into a wheelchair and get goin' a little! I wheel into the bathroom. Then I try to back the wheelchair, out of the bathroom. Wheelchairs ain't got no rearview mirrors! I'm whackin against the doorway when I hear a voice. "Sir, do you need help?" Everybody tells me, "Dave, you need help!," So I tell the lady, "Yes." She backs my wheelchair out of the bathroom. She's all in white. Turns out she's a Nursing Supervisor. Then she asks me The Question. "Would you like these nursing students to bathe you?" I see three young women, all in white, standing in the hallway. Looking at me. "Uhhhhhh....." Now, you gotta understand. I'm a shy person. And I'm a wrinkly old man. Staring at these three young women, all looking at me. I feel like a deer in the headlights! But I'm also a grubby, shy, wrinkly old man. I haven't had a shower for a week. I've been laying for almost a week on those plastic-coated mattresses. Those plastic-coated mattresses that throw your sweat right back at you. So, before I can talk myself out of it, I lie. I lie, and I say, "Yes, I'd like those nurses to bathe me." Those three young nursing students wheel me back into the bathroom. They help me stand and grab on to one of those grab bars. Grab bars are a wonderful thing! They strip off my hospital gown. Yikes! What did I say about being shy?!!!! Then they work me over with warm washcloths. I felt like the car, goin' through the car wash! What, no wax job?! I was so embarrassed, I can't even remember what clothing they put on me, after my stand-up bath. I guess, a clean hospital gown? I said, "Thank you!" Off they disappear to somewhere else.

But I feel New, with a capital N! How refreshing!! In our Gospel reading for Sunday, Jesus talks about the coming of John the Baptizer and Jesus' own message to the people. Both John and Jesus say, "Repent." Repent. Allow God to strip away my oldness. Like those kind nursing students stripped off my grubby, old hospital gown. Repent. Allow God to clean you. Like those kind nursing students cleaned me. In my case, God wants to wash away some of my self-pity. Some of my impatience. And some of my shyness. "Shyness" is a word I use to avoid just being honest ,and saying. "I'm afraid of people." A sign of repentance is feeling re-freshed inside. Lord, wash away some of my self-pity. And now I can see there are others hurting, right here. Lord, wash away some of my impatience. And now I can see Blessings, right here. Lord, wash away some of my shyness-I mean, my fear of others. And I can reach out to lonely people, right here. Two thousand years ago, the message was, Repent. Today, the message is Repent. Today, I will try to allow the Lord to wash away some of my SIN (Self-INvolvement), so I feel New, inside.