Do you walk humbly with God? A walk on the beach stirred this last August story about red letter dates. With much of the story penned, a phone call with news that my sister in High Point had been hospitalized stopped the flow of words as I hit save and shut my computer.

Two days later, sitting beside my sister’s hospital bed, I opened my computer to complete the story. Three times I clicked on Aug. 25, Walking Humbly, with only the title appearing. Realizing the story was lost or wasn’t saved, I closed my computer sadly, made sure my sister was sleeping soundly, and headed out for a walk on the hall where nurses worked and machines buzzed beside beds where people of all ages waited…waited to get better – to go home – or to accept they wouldn’t be going home. Waiting can make one grow weary. Waiting on the Lord with courage can strengthen one’s heart. Waiting for God’s timing (to speak and act) can bring one closer to the Lord and loved ones.

Walking laps around the nurses’ station and seeing ‘people needing people’ in every room, remembrances of past hospital stays surfaced without warning. Soon, I was wiping tears and trotting down the hall.

This is the hospital where I stood with my sister as she waited by her husband’s side and watched him take his last breath. One nurse asked if I was okay. I nodded and slowed my pace. Nurses rushed into a room where a young man’s bed alarmed as he tried to escape the whole hospital experience.

Walking back to their station, I whispered ‘God bless nurses caring for His children’. They told of his relentless attempts to run through the night knowing they were on watch. I thought of people running from one thing or another in life knowing the Lord is watching and waiting to rescue the perishing and care for the dying. Are you running? Do you allow people to help you? Is God first in your life? Are you walking humbly daily with God?

Walking briskly back to my sister’s room to rewrite the story I lost, I wondered about plots of peoples’ stories across the planet! How sad that many are not saved in loved one’s minds, journals, letters, even books, to be shared with future generations. Are we saving our stories in safe places, the greatest being the hearts and minds of loved ones who will treasure them one day.

Are we sharing stories with people who need to be encouraged as they humbly or hardheartedly walk through life? Paul shared his stories, even writing letters of encouragement and direction to love God first, help one another, and ‘to come before winter’…when in perilous places, even prison! Paul’s stories are shared in God’s Word.

Many people counting on you and me need words and acts of love to encourage them to keep on walking, and they need for us to come before winter – before it’s too late! Don’t let your stories get lost by living in denial, the past, in grief, without forgiving, without being passionately in love with Thee and them (loved ones), and without purposefully writing your story by His plan and enjoying every chapter. Do it before winter when it might be too late?

I wondered about the plans of people’s stories on the floor where I walked and saw their faces, in this huge hospital, in medical facilities across the world filled with people seeking answers to health problems and hoping for healing. Feeling overwhelmed, I closed my sister’s door to shut out distractions and pondered on ‘people needing people’ and God watching over and waiting for us to experience Him, His love, and His miracle healing power.

Mrs. Carolyn Tew, my high school French teacher, came to mind. I could hear her singing, ‘People who need people are the luckiest people in the world. We’re children needing other children. And yet letting our grown-up pride hide all the need inside. Acting more like children… than children. ‘ I remembered, my husband, James’ words, “…some things we should just know to do, children need to grow up!”

I pondered on words from God’s Word, ‘…be prepared for I come as a thief in the night, be humble like little children, don’t let the sun set on your anger, better to be of humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud, train up a child in the way they should go, I will not leave you comfortless – I will come to you, go and tell the good news, by humility and the fear of Me are riches, and honor, and life, there will be tears at night but joy comes in the morning, all things , whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive, whatever you do – do in love, forbear and forgive one another, those with no sin cast the first stone, love one another as I have loved you, I am good unto them that wait for Me – to the soul that seeketh Me, flee fornication, honor your mother and father, love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, I lift up the meek and cast the wicked down, I am with you always, cast all your cares upon Me, I am your refuge and strength, blessed are those that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for time is at hand, I will swallow up death in victory; and will wipe away tears from off all faces, well done my good and faithful servant”…and I knew time is at hand for all of us to do the things we know to do and grow up as God’s children!

The truth in lyrics from ‘People Need People’ resonated with reality while we humbly watched our sister needing people’s help and trusting God to order her steps during recovery. My brother, sister-in-law, and I sat by my sister’s bed with encouraging words as nurses, aides, nutritionists, doctors, and physical therapists helped her. All over the world there are people needing people. How blessed we are to live in a nation of abundant blessings and in close proximity to outstanding medical facilities where people from all corners of God’s creation come for help. Grown up pride subsides when people need people to help find out what needs to be fixed inside. With childlike faith, people in touch with God have hope and peace that passes all understanding. Even when things look bleak, prayer and believing, in the One who created all people, can bring miracles from our messes.

Getting the good news that our sister would be released and we could take her home caused us all to act like children right there in her hospital room. Gaye led the procession being pushed in a wheelchair by a hospital volunteer. Surely, everyone reading this story has experienced humbling hospital exits. The three of us followed close behind our sweet sister, who we call the Good Samaritan in our family. Gaye is there to help ‘all people’ God puts in her path. She gives gifts of love, counsel, help to people far and wide, with a kind spirit and humble heart desiring no recognition. She lives her love story out loud and humbly walks with God.

Walking with my family down the long hospital corridor stirred my heart to write this story. I was so proud to walk with my family even though our pace was not what it used to be, we were together and trusting God with humbled hearts. The person escorting my sister told us we were walking down the longest hall in the hospital, for it seemed we would never reach our destination. That’s the way life is for people who need people, but most of all need God. Our journeys may seem to take us on redirected routes with crooks and turns unforeseen, but if we keep our eyes on Jesus, our destination will be eternity with the King of Kings! God loves all His children and longs to help us ‘walk on through storms and hold our heads up high, walk on, walk on with hope in our hearts and we’ll never walk alone’!

So, how are you walking the journey and writing your story? Losing the story about humbly walking with God made me sad at first. Then, God gave me time with my family around my sister’s bedside and walking the halls of a hospital where people needed help from people and God, and I knew this was the story He wanted to be shared. I pray this message touches peoples’ hearts who might have grown-up pride hiding needs inside, people in hospitals needing loved ones by their side, people who need to confess and come close to Christ, people who choose not to forgive and pursue new beginnings, people burdened with busyness who won’t make time to give, people who put off preparing for their final destination, and people without an intimate relationship with Jesus who are hurting inside, to ask Him to come in their hearts and abide.

Humbly walking with God is wise and wonderful! Just a closer walk with Thee will lead you to eternity.

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By Becky Spell Vann

Contributing columnist

Becky Spell Vann is the owner and operator of Tim’s Gift and The Learning Station.