I don't look away or wince when the Blood lady comes along and wants to draw blood, at least not when it's someone else's blood. That happened today when we put mom in the hospital, hopefully for just a few days. The blood lady did her best not to hurt her, but mom still winced. I could feel the wince go through me, some kind of sympathetic response. If I ever thought that they were not supposed to hurt you when you are in the hospital, I lost that notion a long time ago.

When I had my hernia surgery back in the army, the very next day the nurse, a full bird Colonel was merciless on me and made me crawl  back and forth from my bed to the bathroom where I threw up for days. Miserable week in that old hospital at Ft. Stewert Ga. As I think back on it, she probably did me more good than I realize, but she sure made me not like her in the meantime. No matter I guess, I got over it. The doctor told me the side they did surgery on would be stronger than the other side. Who knew surgery could make you stronger, maybe I'd do more of it. Really, just kidding.

But what about church? Not a month has gone by over the last 26 years where I don't hear about someone being hurt at church. When you first think about it, you probably feel a sense of injustice, how can that happen at church kind of thing. I find myself disbelieving it to sometimes. But it does happen. I have no way of knowing how many times someone has been hurt by me or someone else at church but I wonder if it's like the hospital sometimes. Sometimes you have to draw blood to find out how a person is doing. You have to find out what's going on inside them and that is invasive. Perhaps minimally invasive, but painful still.

I read somewhere this week that Christians need to be kind but not always nice. I'm still pondering that. I think Jesus could fit that description. Maybe Kind but Firm is how I would put it. I normally don't enjoy being firm, it feels like I'm hurting someone. They want something and I am not helping them get it, maybe I even say no. It's not my favorite thing to do.

And yet, like the lady who draws blood, or the doctor who takes a scalpel to your skin and beyond, or the nurse who prods you to get up and move, the hurting can become healing. It may not feel like it at the moment, but it is their job to "hurt" you, in order to heal you. I wonder who taught that in school. Was there a class on hurting people in order to help them? I don't remember one for me in college, how to hurt people in church so that they would feel better later on. And yet, it happens.

Maybe I would enjoy some training in bedside manner. The Blood girl was friendly, knew what she was doing, gave an air of confidence, found the vein, told you what she was going to do, warned you when it was about to happen and soothed you with her words as she finished up. I'll never forget her comment as she was about to drop that sliver of steel into mothers arm. Stick. That's it.

It took some convincing to get mom in the hospital, she doesn't like being there. Who does, but it's a place of healing. I'm glad they know how to hurt her kindly and with healing in their hearts. I hope to hear more of those comments in the future from folks who come to church. I hope church becomes more of a place of healing than hurting, but sometimes the only way to healing involves some hurting.