In the book Soul Keeping, the author John Ortberg wrote, “When evangelist Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth, died in 2007, she chose to have engraved on her gravestone words that had nothing to do with her remarkable achievements.  It had to do with the fact that as long as we are alive, God will be working on us, and then we will be free.  She had been driving one day along a highway through a construction site, and there were miles of detours and cautionary signs and machinery and equipment.  She finally came to the last one, and this final sign read, ‘End of construction.  Thank you for your patience.’  That’s what is written over Ruth Graham’s grave: ‘End of construction.  Thank you for your patience.’”[1]

Likewise, as patients and families weave through their experiences in the hospital, they may travel “miles of detours” with changes in their medical treatment.  With a variety of machines and equipment surrounding the beds, patients and their loved ones face “cautionary signs” with the various updates they hear from the members of the medical team and the consents they sign.  Upon reaching the end of the patients’ hospitalizations through various forms of discharge, we offer “thanks” by displaying a servant’s heart and continuously supporting them and their families with a holistic approach.

Father, continue to direct each of us in supporting patients and families through their hospitalization experiences.  In Your name I pray, Amen.

[1]  John Ortberg, Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishers, 2014), 151.