I was in my office between classes, reviewing curriculum, completely lost as to what to do, feeling in over my head. I had been grappling with the responsibility of a new position. I’d left the chaotic night-shift of a nurse for a tenure-track instructor position at Western Illinois University. Student office hours and crowded lecture halls were the least of my worries. It was my other new job I was concerned about.
I had been appointed committee chairperson for religious education at my church. I was in charge of choosing and implementing spiritual curriculum for children, a huge responsibility. Was that where God wanted me to be when I wasn’t teaching my college students?
Straightening papers on my desk, I suddenly thought of Jim, a fellow instructor who I’d met at church. I didn’t know him all too well, outside of the casual greeting after service. Go see him, came the urge. He did work at WIU, but I certainly couldn’t just drop in on him. Maybe I’ll chat with him at church this weekend… But there was no denying the urge to pop by his office.
I found his office in the university phone book and headed over. Jim met me at the door. “I’m so glad you’re here,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.” A man lay face up on the floor. He appeared to be unconscious. “Dan came in about thirty minutes ago, staggering about, slurred speech. I think he’s drunk so I thought maybe I’d just let him sleep it off.”
The symptoms couldn’t have been clearer — at least to me. “Call 911. Now! Then grab some sugar packets.”
While we waited, I put sugar under Jim’s tongue.
“Hypoglycemia,” said the paramedics, just as I’d thought. They started a complex sugar IV and within seconds Dan awakened. “We were lucky,” the paramedics said. “He could’ve died.”
The next day, Dan came to my office. He was a newly diagnosed diabetic and had taken his insulin on an empty stomach. “You saved my life,” he said. “Jim told me you just walked in out of the blue.”
Of course I did. Because God puts us exactly where he needs us to be.
