Happy Tuesday, My Dear Friend!
Ahhhh, be it ever so humid, there’s no place like home. It was delightful being in Wisconsin, but Lord have mercy, was I cold! There were still some snow piles upon our arrival on May 20. I spent most of my time wrapped up in a blanket. But I did get to see some friends and family, too, and one of the conversations I had during that time really got me thinking. It made me think about how differently gifted we all are. It made me think about all the jobs I couldn’t do. Allow me to explain.
I had coffee with my friend Marieke one day. Marieke was our realtor when we bought our lake home in Wisconsin. Side note: Realtor is one of those jobs on my “no-way-could-I-ever-do-that” list. You have to be so friendly, meet and talk to people a lot. (wince) Not to mention drive all over the place and be good at math. Marieke is great at it! But that’s not even “the thing” she does that I could never do that got me thinking.
Marieke is also an End-of-Life Doula.
Have you ever even heard of such a thing? Before knowing Marieke, I hadn’t. She helps people that are dying. And helps their families as well. And I thought the “realtor” part of her was the job I couldn’t do!
But to hear her talk about her work, you can see how much she loves it. How perfectly she is gifted to do so. When I said something like “I could never do that,” she said that she’s been with several people, including her own mother, as they have died and that it can be “beautiful.”
Beautiful. OK, she was made for this stuff. Thank you, God, for the Mariekes out there that are made to do the work where others (me!) fear to tread.
I had another friend years ago that had another “job I could not do.” We were young moms together at a church in Minnesota, doing the children’s choir together. As we got acquainted, we talked about what sort of work we had done before our kids came along. She was a hairdresser.
For dead people.
Wait! That’s a thing?? Never had I ever heard of someone fixing dead peoples’ hair. She explained that she’d lost her dad at a young age and was devasted by the loss. Working part-time at a funeral home was a perfect way for her to “do one last nice thing for the family that was mourning the loss of their loved one.” As I was cringing and wrinkling my nose, she talked about how she loved making someone look nice for their friends and family for the last time they’d see them. She was definitely gifted to do just that.
Oh, there are so many other jobs I could never do. Take being a nurse, for instance. Uh-uh. First of all, they have to take super hard classes in college. I like science, and I’m no dummy, but eye’m allso knot smartt enuf too bee ah nerse. Plus, dealing with all the gross things a human body can do? I just can’t. Thank God for the ones who do it. What on earth would we do without them?
Classroom teacher? Nope. Couldn’t do that either. And I come from a long line of teachers. And I really am a kid person! I can handle an hour and a half of Sunday school on the occasional weekend. And I did teach preschool music for a while. But teach the same kids every day for 180 days?? What if you don’t like one of your kids? What if you have to go to the bathroom? (I’ve heard you just have to hold it when you’re a teacher.) Thank God for our teachers! I wish we’d take better care of them.
Bank teller? Fagetaboutit. If I had a job that required me to handle money, I can guarantee I’d have it messed up within minutes. I used to work at the front desk at my dorm. We sold sodas, pizzas, and snacks. I had to count the money in the cashbox at the start of my three-hour shift, tally up my sales, and then count the money at the end. The idea was that the money you brought in should be reflected perfectly by what you had in the cashbox. I never had a perfect reflection. Mine was always quite muddy.
When our kids flew the coop a while ago, I wondered what I should be doing. You see when our chicks were all in the nest, I never wondered, “What should I do now?” But I have asked that question over and over these last few years. Getting no solid answer from myself (I can be so evasive sometimes), I asked God to see if He had a better solution. I knew it wasn’t a realtor, an end-of-life doula, a teacher, or a nurse. But I did get an answer.
God told me the same thing Jesus said to Peter in John’s gospel in the last chapter. I heard Him say (in my spirit, not my ears), “Feed my sheep.”
Hmm. That seemed a bit vague. I was hoping for something way more specific, please and thank you. But I think I eventually figured it out.
I believe nurses are gifted to “feed God’s sheep” by caring for them when they are hurt or ill. Teachers feed God’s sheep by instructing our young in so many ways. Realtors feed God’s sheep by taking care of folks who are moving from one place to another. We are all so differently gifted to do what we do.
Me? I love to make people happy. I love to make people laugh. I love to encourage. And I’ve always liked stringing words together. Put those things together, and you’ve got these emails. I think that may be my way of feeding God’s sheep.
I hope you like the taste of what I’m serving. It’s truly an honor to have you at my table. I hope you stick around for dessert.
How about you? How do you feed the sheep of this world? I’d love to hear about it!
Written with love – – Patti XOXO 
“The third time He said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me?’
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time,
‘Do you love Me?’
He said, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’
Jesus said, ‘Feed My sheep.'”
John 21:17