testimony

At the end of my last verbatim, my supervisor asked me "what picture of God did this patient see in you?"  It was a hard question for me since the visit was cut short, and no religious dialog took place.  It's easy for me to want to judge the worth of the visit by the depth of spiritual conversation that we shared. 


In our Pastoral Care class we are reading Dykstra's book Images of Pastoral Care.  Here is a great quote I read this afternoon.   "Perhaps the man going from Jerusalem to Jericho had made the trip a hundred times without incident.  If the Samaritan had fallen in step with him on one of those occasions, he might well have presented verbal testimony to his faith.  No oil or wine or bandages would have been required.  But this time nothing else would do.  What was needed was oil, wine, bandages, and an inn.  This was the sole relevant testimony for this occasion. Whatever might be true in other places and at other times, the one way in which proper testimony might be given in this place at this time was by shepherding."  


Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."  Luke 10:37 NIV