my first vows

Here I Am

January 16, 2005 HERE I AM Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10

R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or offering you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
"In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
And your law is within my heart!"
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.

TODAY'S MASS READING INCLUDES THIS BEAUTIFUL PSALM...I AM READY LORD, HERE I AM....HEAR ME LORD, I AM HERE FOR YOU TO DO YOUR WILL...MY HEART IS OPEN...I AM READY...YOU HAVE HEARD MY CRY...YOUR WAYS ARE IN MY HEART...I HAVE WAITED AND WAITED...HERE I AM...

I have had times in my life when it seemed as though I waited and waited to do what God wanted...One August day in 1998, I prayed to God to please give me some way to use the training as a nurse I had completed to serve God...That was in my apartment on an early afternoon...immediately after the prayer, I went out and there was a street fair in the small town and the roads were blocked off with saw horses. Crowds were browsing through stands of vendors and local booths. I walked about one half a block then a face in the crowd drew me to her like a magnet. I did not stop to think or hesitate...there was something about the pale color of her face. I walked directly to her through the crowd. She was standing on top of and at the edge of the curb on the sidewalk. An elderly, thin woman in her seventies wearing a sleeveless top and shorts and sneakers. A stylishly dressed daughter in her fifties was standing next to her.

Just as I moved close enough to touch her she collapsed in my arms. I gently lowered her in my arms to the ground and right away asked a bystander to run into the store and we were in front of and say they immediately need the bottled water in the self serve cooler for a medical emergency..do it fast and have them call for an ambulance. The person came back swiftly and I poured the cool water over the woman's head to cool her she was starting to pass out. The water brought her around. There were some people in the crowd that said make her drink the water...I said I am a nurse she might throw up I can't have her drink yet. Just after i said that she threw up all over my skirt and blouse. I did not care because the water cooling seemed to have rapidly reversed her heat stroke that had been progessing.... The ambulance squad came. At that point, the woman told her daughter she did not want to go but admitted to me that she had a heart condition. Her daughter told me the woman had just run 5K in the stifling high humidity, high 80's weather. I convinced the woman to go to the hospital.

I thought that my prayer had been answered and I had done God's will but about ten minutes and 4 blocks later...I found another elderly woman who also had been in the race suffering from heat stroke. She was not as badly overheated as the first. Her family had an SUV...I had them get her into it with the AC on full blast and give her cool water to drink....She was still pale and overheated but looked to be responding well...I told them where the ER at the local hospital was which was about 12 blocks away...they were undecided about whether to go or not but the woman was basically stable when I left...I left it to them.