acuity

There is a big sign on the wall in the Emergency Center's waiting room.  PATIENTS WILL BE SEEN IN ORDER OF ACUITY, NOT IN ORDER OF ARRIVAL.  I don't think I ever noticed the sign until today.  Today the waiting room was packed.  Weak people leaning on someone else.  Hurting people doubled over.  Coughing people who looked worn out.  Everyone waiting their turn.  Sometimes for hours.


I was standing at the front desk talking to the greeter.  All of a sudden three young guys came in.  Two guys helping a third.  The first thing I noticed was that he looked very unsteady and pale.  And then I saw his hand wrapped in a bloody sock.  As his friends blurted out that they thought his fingers were severed I began to feel unsteady and pale.  The greeter knew acuity when he saw it.  He jumped up and rushed the guy into a triage room where a doctor immediately came in.


As our cpe class work winds up I think about all the things waiting to be done.  Case studies, final evaluations, certification requirements, applications and resumes, on calls and final projects.  And those are just the chaplain related things! Just looking at my to do list makes me feel unsteady and pale.  Sometimes I wish for my own version of a greeter who will say "here is what is really urgent" and then wisk me away to do only that.


I once heard that in our world today people have a desperate need for quiet.  More than relief from horns honking and phones beeping.  The kind of quiet that comes inside your head when you are calm and peaceful.  When your priorities are straight.  When you have a clear sense of what really is acute and what is just waiting around to be done.  It is the kind of quiet that comes after the storm has been calmed.  It is the whisper that comes after the earthquake and the fire.


That is the triage room I want to be sitting in.

And this righteousness will bring peace.  Yes, it will bring quietness and confidence forever.  My people will live in safety, quietly at home. They will be at rest.  Isaiah 32:17,18 NLT