Finish The Sentence

Recently we have had a series of curious messages on our pager.

For some reason, the communication team sends a long text message about what kind of trauma is on it's way and how long it will take to get here, but we only get the first 20 characters. For example, here are a few recent ones:

"Trauma Alert: GSW to the "
"Trauma: GSW through and "

"Trauma Alert: ETA 9 - mo "

and my personal favorite:

"Code Trauma - Pt is "

I was on call when the last one came in. In our usual style, I read the pager out loud and heard a variety of clever responses from my whitty chaplain-mates.

...naked?

...happy?

...here?

...asking for a Chaplain?

A few of these responses were actually correct!

I've written before (and again) about clever fill-in-the blank exercises that we can complete to expand how we envision God and God's relationship to humanity. These usually come from serious didactic session with our supervisor.

Now, it seems, I am encouraged by my on-call pager to get creative and playful in my work. I just need to stay awake to these subtle cues. I think, "How am I finishing the sentence that God started?" Or, "How does God finish a sentence that I started?"

God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful— I can't take it all in! Psalm 139:1[ A David Psalm ] (The Message)

How are you finishing the sentence today, "Blog reader is..." ?