felt need vs. true need

 There was a lot of hustle and bustle in the room as the therapists and students arranged the room to make it ready to see patients.  Every once in a while a new patient would make their way into our makeshift clinic and take a seat patiently waiting to be seen  A row of chairs sat lined up against the cement wall.  She limped through the doorway and found her way to one of them.  She sat waiting in the chair carefully cradling one hand with the other.  One foot was completely bandaged with bulky gauze and dried blood visible  It was covered with dust and dirt from a life of having to walk everywhere that she went.  Eventually it was her turn to be seen, and so she made her way over to us.  We began to talk to her and ask her what brought her in to see us today.  I was listening to her Bulgarian and waiting for the translator to tell us what she was saying and expecting to hear a story about her foot.  Instead she kept motioning to the hand she was cradling in her lap.  The translator began to explain to us that she was here today to see us because she had pain in her wrist and her hand that she wanted us to help her with.  We asked if she wanted treatment for her foot also, and she nodded "no".  Being concerned for her foot and whatever was under that dirty bandage, we reassured her that she didn't have to pick just one thing and we could see her for both her hand/wrist and her foot.  She again assured us that she wasn't concerned about her foot and she was only here today to see us for her wrist.

 

 

So... we treated her hand/wrist pain.  It ended up being general arthritic and overuse pain from her daily chores.  We were able to give her some tips and advice on pain management and how to care for and protect her joints and a few simple exercises.  It was quick and easy.  Before leaving we asked her what had happened to her foot.  As she explained, she began to unwrap the bandage so that she could show us what was wrong.  Oh my!!  Half of her foot was literally gone and the part that was there was part blackened, dead tissue and part infected.  She explained that she had to have her toes amputated for some reason or another and that the wound became infected causing her to have more of her foot amputated.  The current amputation was indeed infected and part of the tissue already dead and she was treating it with some "herbal mixture".  She did not seem to be the least bit concerned.  I, on the other hand, knew that left untreated and living in the third world circumstances she was living in, this could be life-threatening.  We convinced her to let us clean it up a bit and re-dress it with clean bandages, and she agreed.  Thankfully the friend with me had more experience with wound care and was able to see this lady.  She spent a little more than two hours carefully cutting away the dead tissue, scraping away the infected tissue, applying medicine, redressing the wound, and instructing the woman on how to care for her foot.  It was such a beautiful picture to see her sitting at this lady's dirty feet giving such care and attention to her.

 

 

When I think about this situation it seems so ridiculous to me.  She was so concerned about her wrist pain, when the life-threatening issue was her foot.  She felt that she needed us for help with her wrist.  She didn't even see a need for her foot.  She didn't come seeking treatment for the wound, and we practically had to beg her to address that need.  To me it seems so obvious what her true need was that day. 

 

 

But then I look at myself and it all makes sense!  So many times, literally and figuratively, I am concerned with so many lesser things that really don't even matter in the big scheme of things.  Meanwhile, the glaringly obvious truth is staring me right in the face.  I often times ignore my deepest and truest needs.  I overlook them.  I pay attention to lesser things.  I distract myself with other things so I don't have to deal with the hard things.  I pretend like it's really not that bad. 

 

 

Thankfully, I serve a Savior who is a Master Surgeon.  Taking time to gently call my need to the surface.  He doesn't neglect my felt needs, but addresses them and then graciously leads me to the deeper need.  Gently cutting away the dead parts of my heart and scraping away the infection.  Applying the balm of His truth, peace, and comfort and calling forth life in the dead areas of my life.