Walking together!

Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction? — Amos 3:3

You do a lot of walking each day don’t you?

According to a study conducted in a major hospital, nurses walk on average 4.2 miles during a 1- hour day shift, 3.9 miles for night shift. 

Suffice it to say, you walk somewhere between 4 and 5 miles each shift! Each step has a purpose, sometimes urgent as you respond to a call for help, sometimes measured as you make your hourly rounds, sometimes frustrated as you look for something that is missing, sometimes with joy as you discharge a patient to home!

Every day you are walking. Do you feel like you are getting to where you need to go?
In scripture walking is often a metaphor for relationship involving conversation, choices, conviction, and purpose. Your experience with life is described as your walk with God.

So, the question is posed: Can you really get to where you need to go if you haven’t agreed on the direction or destination? If you haven’t grasped the why, or the how, or the purpose and reason behind your walk in either life or work, you might find that you aren’t getting to where you want to go as effectively as you may wish.

This is where purposeful steps come into play; Steps that are taken with intention and resolve. Steps that are informed by your relationship, with others: God, patient, peers, your spouse family or friends.

You see, every step you take, every move you make is in relationship with someone else. Walking together is a God-given responsibility for all in patient care. You are invited to walk the joyous hallways of birth and healing, and you are asked to accompany those who  "...walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." ( Psalms 23:4)

This week, the nation celebrates Teacher Appreciation, Nurse Appreciation, and Hospital Week. This week is not enough time to honor the walk you have with your peers and patients, yet there will be celebrations indeed.

Every day is a celebration of the walk you share with so many. While your feet may travel 4 miles in a shift, your heart and caring go much farther!!