More and more I am having these moments I call when faith meets real life. We all have them. You trust and believe that God will supply all your needs. Then, your mortgage payment date is coming up but your bank account can't accommodate both what you owe to Bank of America and what you owe to the church. You trust and believe that what God has for you is for you and anything you ask in His name He will supply because He said He will give you the desires of your heart. But, you anxiously await word of whether you will get that new job or promotion. Each of these moments I feel are small in the scope of life, but they happen and some would have us believe our faith is weak or not as strong as they should be because of these moments.
Well, last night I had such a moment but this moment made me pause and question myself for a second. I'm walking down the hall of a very busy hotel. Several conventions are underway in the city and my hotel is serving as the host hotel for two major ones. One of the conventions happens to be for a national Pentecostal group. My family is Pentecostal so I am very familiar with this Christian denomination. I, of course, have my rolling laptop briefcase rolling behind me. All of a sudden I feel a jerk on my case. I quickly turn to see what's happening when out the corner of my eye I see a woman falling. She lands roughly on her side and begins to proclaim, "It's broken. I definitely broke it".
I look down to the floor. She is twisting back and forth, the drink that was in her hand is now on the ground above her head and its contents splashed at her side. It takes me more time than it should to realize that jerk I felt was somehow connected to her fall. Partly because my mind was simultaneously trying to understand how she fell and if she were o.k. People swiftly surround us and begin assisting with pulling the woman up from the floor. Again, it took me too long to realize and state that they should not move her. Through my fog I hear my voice saying "don't move her" then a chorus of others begin to shout the same. Again, I'm in a fog and I don't know why.
Men begin lifting the table away from the scene so the fallen woman can at least lay her head down. The next thing I hear is "somebody pray". One of the young women that rushed to the scene and was holding the fallen woman immediately began praying. As I watched I questioned, "What a funny thing to request. Wouldn't you want somebody to call a doctor? This lady's leg is possibly broken. She has already fallen and injured herself so wouldn't you think call the doctor then pray?" I am literally having this moment in my head when I hear someone say "call a doctor, notify the hotel".
Something to note. I am actually not doing anything to assist the situation. I am literally just standing there having these moments in my head. Failure and Shame.
Well the other major convention at the hotel happens to be the one I'm attending, the National Medical Association Annual Meeting; so, doctors were nearby. The doctor to just happen to be passing the scene is one of the doctors I work with and know. He immediately begins assisting and as if his presence is some type of fog remover I pull out of my haze and grab his bag so he can begin assisting the woman. All the while, people were gathering and praying. Once the EMT arrived the crowd began to disperse, giving the medic the space he needed to assist the fallen woman.
As I begin down the hall again, rolling case in tow, I realized I had yet another when faith meets real life moment. Now I'm sure all my Pentecostal family and fellow Christians are saying, yes, and you failed as a Christian. Now, of course I believe God is a healer and the first you should call. But obviously there is a disconnect with what I believe and how I react. So to add as many bible sayings as possible I will next say that yes, I understand faith without works is dead.But my fundamental, and I believe every one's fundamental struggle in their relationship with God is how to implement that faith in every day practice, in reality. In this moment surely I felt it was appropriate for them to pray but I also felt it was silly to do so before securing medical attention for the fallen woman. And yes I realize I'm the worst critic ever because I did neither, pray or call a doctor but I'm trying to share how imperfect we are as a people. This people is why I am grateful for grace, mercy, forgiveness, and the ability to learn. So what did I learn from this situation. To Act. I honestly feel God would have been o.k. with me calling the doctor then going into an intense prayer. I don't think he is o.k. with doing nothing.
