An Appropriate Presence

In the "preacher's vernacular" there are "funeral preachers" and there are preachers who preach funerals.   In other words, there are preachers who know appropriately what to say, when to speak and when to shut their face and mouth.   They are the ones who can make a family feel a whisper of joy even in the midst of their pain.   Not long ago, people in a surrounding community all learned this first-hand by example.  The minister, not used to such a large audience, perhaps, used the time to tell his own life story and deal with his own pain.   Those who happened to be in the audience felt a wide range of emotion and it all seemed to border on negative response.  Some were repelled by his encroachment upon this time which should have been focused on the deceased.

I have spent a good part of the last years visiting family members and friends in hospitals and nursing homes and I can almost instantly sense, in the same kind of way, "an appropriate presence" in the staff which surrounds the patients.  It runs from the aide who always takes the time to "show mercy"  to the nurse who does more than dispense the meds;  she/he dispenses a sense of caring and concern at the same time.

All of us are entrusted with the task of being present.  No set of circumstances is always perfectly ideal.   It is how we deal with our attitude that moment, that day and with that patient or friend.   God grant us the serenity to cope with ourselves and above all, help us to remember that the audience did not come to hear us expound about our own problems.   Let my words and presence for today be appropriate!