Urine trouble...

“Kendra….just go!”

“I DON’T WANNA! EVERYONE’S WATCHING!”

“Don’t think about them. The sooner you go….the sooner we leave.”

Oh, really? You think I’m falling for that?

I was in and out of the hospital as a kid. Seriously. All the stinkin’ time. I knew that on Thursdays they had everything pizza with green peppers and that on Tuesday nights my favorite nurse Barb would come in with chocolates shaped like bells and give me a handful before clocking out for the night.

But this was new.

I was having some kidney issues, not that I even knew what the heck that meant at the time, but I was a wee chitlin and now in a big metallic-looking room being told to pee on a table.

Pee on a table.

Yes, because that’s natural for a child….to pee on a table.

And for the joy of humanity, let’s invite a group of med students in to observe and report!

So there I am….lying on a table, maybe six or seven years old, surrounded by some white-coated infidels (who I now know actually cared) waiting for me to do the simple act of urinating all over myself.

Can you believe I refused?

I am an ugly crier, always have been, and I can just see the med students writing in their clinical journals about me, “I was able to experience a procedure today with one pediatric patient who had the scariest scrunched up face I have ever seen, in my professional opinion…”

“I AIN’T GOIN’.”

I was not stubborn by any means.

Mom was there.

“Kendra, the sooner you go, the sooner I will get you McDonald’s.”

Well, the windows of heaven did open! Somehow I managed to find the inner bladder angel and destroy the table beneath me.

TMI? Suck it up, readers.

I was but a wee babe.

And shortly after, just as she had promised, after they got me showered up, I was sitting at a table with a Big Mac and fries.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

I think about that moment a lot. I don’t have too many fond memories of the hospital, or the procedures I had done, but I do remember that one a lot and laugh. I laugh at how much it applies to my life now.

I pee on tables pretty often.

Haha!

No.

However, that procedure that day was to help me, it seemed terrible at the time, but it was definitely for my benefit. Only when I was given something that I wanted did I follow through with what was best for me.

See where I’m going here?

In my walk with Christ, He has me go through a lot of things, deal with a lot of situations, handle a lot of different people and circumstances, all for my benefit. He leads me in paths I normally would not walk through and areas in my life where I normally would not travel. When He presents me with these options, I refuse at first, thinking, What will you do for me if I do this for You?

What a sad way to build a relationship with Christ. Thinking that we lead a life in which He owes us something…how corrupt is that thought process?

If you do or don’t believe in God, or are not a follower of Christ, even though I would hope and pray that you would be one day, you can apply this to any relationship. We’re constantly looking to “get something out of” every circumstance in life.

How selfish.

How misinformed are we?

Every day, every moment that we wake up, is a new opportunity to live outside of ourselves. To live for others and to do things that make us uncomfortable, but will make us better in the future. We are not owed anything…and even though our debt has been paid, we ought to live our lives out of thankfulness and gratitude by the chances we’ve been given. My mom would've taken me to McDonald's either way, but how nice would it have been for the surprise of getting it after doing what I was told....instead of remembering twenty years later that I was too stubborn and demanded it instead?

Pee on that table, folks. Pee on that table. ;)