“Bob, we need you down here right now!”
The nurse’s urgent tone barely penetrated Bob’s sleep-deprived mind. He worked as a physician assistant in a small rural hospital in upstate New York, pulling 24-hour shifts in the ER. Some nights could be brutal and this was one of them. Bob was exhausted. But duty called, so he pulled on his shoes and headed wearily towards the in-patient wing.
“Okay, I’m here,” he announced. “What’s the emergency?”
The head nurse took in his rumpled scrubs and bleary eyes and declared, “You look awful!”
“Thanks,” Bob snarled, “Three hours of sleep will do that to you. What’s the problem?”
“Mrs. Jeffrey, Room 14, is having a mental breakdown. She’s hallucinating and screaming there are frogs in her room. We need you to order something to calm her down.”
Bob groaned. He hated dealing with mental health patients and never more than on nights like tonight, when he was barely holding onto his own sanity. Shaking his head in disgust, he grabbed Mrs. Jeffrey’s chart and headed toward her room. He told himself he’d just take a quick peek, prescribe some Xanax and head back to bed.
A few minutes later, Bob reappeared at the nurses’ station, grinning from ear-to-ear. He unceremoniously plopped a huge bullfrog on the counter, then turned and walked away, calling over his shoulder, “There’s your frog! Next time, take the time to actually check the patient before you call me. Just because a patient sounds crazy, doesn’t mean they actually are!”
Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” (Matthew 7:1 NIV). It is so easy to make a snap decision about someone based on their appearance, how they talk, or where they come from. However, until we actually step into the room with someone, get to know them, we have no business criticizing them.
We need to give each other a break and “Be kind and compassionate to one another…” (Ephesians 4:32). We need to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Who knows? After we get to know someone, we may just discover there really was a frog in the room.
What a great illustration! I recently watched the training videos for the Breathe Free 2 stop smoking plan. In one of them Dr. Alan Handysides says “If we start with confrontation, it won’t last long.”