Somos del Senor

My friend Pat was a nurse with a passion for people, particularly for those who would otherwise be "left out": nursing home residents, the feeble and infirm, nursing students, persons who had lost hope, and persons who held on to hope in spite of the world's overwhelming evidence that they had no hope.

Pat felt called and compelled to care for the peasants of La Frontera -- the Mexican side of the Rio Bravo (or as we Americans call it, the Rio Grande). She would travel to Reynosa or smaller towns as often as possible with other Volunteers in Mission; at times, it seemed like she went every month. Pat overcame almost any obstacle that might try to keep her from this ministry of caring and compassion -- language differences, job requirements in Baton Rouge, red tape or administrative interference.

She was unable to overcome two adversaries: diminished capacity to function as a nurse due to shrinking of the brain; and, much too soon, her death.

Her pastor invited me to offer a Witness to Pat's life during the memorial service. Memories, thanksgivings, and celebrations were many, but the opening line of a hymn that we both held dear claimed my heart and mind, and so I began to sing:

Pues si vivimos, para El vivimos
y si morimos para El morimos.
Sea que vivamos o que muramos,
somos del Senor, somos del Senor.

Yes, I sang it in Spanish -- although I don't speak Spanish. Pat cared for hundreds of folks in Spanish although she couldn't really speak it either.

The inspiration for the hymn is Romans 14:8 (Please read it.) The English translation for the hymn as it appears in The United Methodist Hymnal is:

When we are living, it is in Christ Jesus,
and when we're dying, it is in the Lord.
Both in our living and in our dying
we belong to God, we belong to God.

I thank God that we belong to God. I thank God for the evidence God shared with me in and through Pat. May God confirm in you that you belong to God.

Somos del senor, somos del Senor.

Tim