One element of the normal work of a church minister is hospital visiting. I must confess that before I became a Methodist minister I had an underlying dislike of hospitals. I'm not sure why that was, as I have never been hospitalised. Perhaps it had something to do with the 'hospital smell' which might have reminded me of the dentist (and I had some rather painful dentist's chair experiences as a child!)
Once I became a minister, I had very little choice about visiting hospitals, and over the years my reluctance to visit such places has dissipated. In Doncaster I was quite fortunate in that the local hospital was only about 15 minutes walk from the manse, so I didn't have any problems either finding the hospital or trying to park nearby.
Now I'm in Leicester, and the situation is somewhat more complicated, not least in that there are 3 main hospitals! One is fairly near where I am now living, the other two are in the city. Yesterday I paid my first visit to the Leicester Royal Infirmary (in truth it wasn't my first visit, because Sue and I visited in early January just after Max, our first grandchild, had been born there). There were two particular issues of which I was aware. Firstly, the problem of finding the place, and secondly, where to park! Unfortunately my sense of direction isn't brilliant (I have come to rely more and more on my satnav to get me from A to B).
I had been out in the morning to buy an A-Z, so at least I had some help in that respect. I decided that rather than try to battle with the city centre traffic and struggle to find a car park, I would park on the outskirts of the city and walk to the hospital. It happened to be a lovely sunny day, a good day for walking. I duly parked the car and set off, map in hand. I knew the general direction, and stopped periodically to make sure I was still on track. As I approached the city centre I saw a large, hospital-looking building. I tried to keep it in view and headed for it.
When I arrived at said building I discovered that it wasn't a hospital at all! Fortunately, on checking my A-Z I discovered that I was fairly close to where the LRI actually was, and soon managed to make my way there. I then discovered that the LRI is a rather large and complicated building. In fact, it is made up of several buildings, each with its own name and wards. I was glad that I had been given helpful instructions about which buildings and wards the two people I were visiting were situated in. After trawling along what seemed like endless corridors, I eventually reached my destination. And after the visits I managed to make my way back to the car (it was a hot day so I called in a shop and bought myself a cornetto!)
I eventually arrived home rather tired, but satisfied that I had accomplished what I had set out to do. As I was reflecting on my experience, I was reminded of something which I had read recently, in which it was stated that there are 3 things we need to help us make the journey through life. Firstly, we need God's word, the Bible. Through the Bible God speaks to us and gives us guidance for living. Secondly, we need prayer. Through prayer was can both speak to God and allow him to speak to us (one of the images used for God in the Bible is of the Good Shepherd, who leads, guides and protects his sheep). Thirdly, we need to listen to wise advice from friends. I know that I couldn't get through life without these 3 key elements. And without my A-Z and ward instructions yesterday, I would probably have been still searching for the LRI!
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