hook me up to the IV caffeine, please - Lesson #7

The life and culture in Rwanda is pretty slow. I was often amazed at how little we would seemingly accomplish in any given day. And yet our accomplishments were so purposeful. Made me wonder...


Have we (meaning me and us in America, LA, Biola, etc) become such a band-aid and prescription fixing culture that we no longer have time to consider, think about, or solve the root of the issue?

Have we as a church accepted this performance-based, 'easy answer' culture? Is there room for counseling and progressive growth for dysfunction, or will we only accept more convenient behavior modification tools and systems?

How has this affected academics and work? Is there any way that I can actually accomplish all of my work without having to drug myself and become a single-minded, goal driven, purposeless and lonely person?

What about simple health? What happens when I have a headache? Should I take something for it? Should I rest when I know that it is caused by fatigue? Do I have time for that? Should I?

Community. Do I have people around me who are involved in my life enough to know when I need time to recover or people who will respond if I ask? Am I walking in fellowship that enables this? Is the system that I am under conducive to such carrying of each others burdens, or do I need to accomplish everything myself? Is there a way to change the system or to work healthily under it?

Some days I operate and plan as if I had an actual 24 hours per day to accomplish my tasks (as though sleep weren't a task...) And some days I feel as though these plans are given to me, as though I don't even have the power to drop them. Am I the only one? It often feels like it! Can this simply be a stage or a rite of passage? Is it a God-given stage, or is it a stage of immaturity and pride?

I ask the question to myself and have begun asking others in my class, "Do you think it's possible to get through nursing school without becoming addicted to caffeine?" We 'joke' about hooking ourselves up to IV caffeine to get it in and enable it to work more quickly. But seriously... If we're pressed this hard, and if the requirements will only get more and more severe and seemingly impossible, will there be a day when nursing students ask themselves if it is possible to get through nursing school without becoming a speed user??

Lord, help us. Give us wisdom to know what to do and how to do it. Give us eyes to see your powerful, redeeming work in this world. Make us a part, and in the process make us whole. You are God, and we are but a drop in the ocean. Use this drop for your purposes and for your greatest glory. Show me how.