Beyond The Routine

Episode 53:  O.R.

Hawkeye:    I can tell the onset of Arthritis.
Henry:      It’s just fatigue, it comes and goes.
Hawkeye:    Henry, this could be your ticket home…
Henry:      Pierce, I’ll level with you.  I’ve got a great practice 

            back home.  They all come to see me.  I’ll bet there’s  

            no one in Bloomington, Illinois, that I haven’t seen 

            naked.  But it’s routine.

Hawkeye:    Cookbook medicine. 
Henry:      Yeah.  But this place, this place, which has all the 

           attraction of a lanced boil, has given me the opportunity to do more doctoring than I can do in a lifetime back in the world.

A busy day in the O.R. reveals the pressures and stresses of the medical staff who are overworked and have to make difficult decisions in difficult circumstances. 

One of the many things I love about my role as a Salvation Army Officer is that no day is the same and very few are predictable.  On any given day I can be sharing my faith, coaching leaders, preparing for public ministry, visiting the sick, responding to one crisis or another, supporting vulnerable people, managing programs, shuffling paperwork or leading a service.  Leading in a frontline mission context, while often demanding, is an exhilarating fulfillment of what I was called and trained to do.  While leadership that is bound by routine can be draining or even depressing, leadership that breaks out of the ordinary can be energizing and empowering, no matter how  challenging the context.  The key to turning the routine into the remarkable is to look for the extraordinary in the ordinary and embrace every moment as an opportunity.