This is my annual "not sure where I am going with this post".

I have been using a devotional book from Henri Nouwen called Bread for the Journey-a Daybook of Wisdom and Faith this year. Each day it has what I call a "bite" of wisdom that Henri shares with me. Anyone who knows my spirituality well, knows that I love me some Henri Nouwen.

One of these "bites" the other day has had me reflecting.

It goes like this...

Care is something other than cure. Cure means "change." A doctor, a lawyer, a minister, a social worker--they all want to use their professional skills to bring about changes in people's lives. They get paid for whatever kind of cure they can bring about. But cure, desirable as it may be, can easily become violent, manipulative, and even destructive if it does not grow out of care. Care is being with, crying out with, suffering with, feeling with. Care is compassion. It is claiming the truth that the other person is my brother or sister, human, vulnerable. like I am.
When care is our first concern, cure can be received as a gift. Often we are not able to cure, but we are always able to care. To care is to be human.

I work in the health care field and this little "bite" played out this week as I read about a Trinity nurse helping out a homeless man who had severe frostbite from having to be out in the recent blizzard. It's not the curing that impressed me, it's the caring. It's the compassion that someone from Trinity felt towards the man and followed through with getting him some help. You could see how this caring was met by this man by looking in his eyes. His eyes were full of gratefulness because of caring.

Isn't that what God calls us to do in the stories of Jesus? The good Samaritan, the lepers, the blind man on the side of the road? Caring means showing that everyone is a brother or sister and when they are going through tough times, to step up and show compassion. It can mean everything in the world to that person. You just have to look at their eyes.