Life is easy, or it can be

Life is easy.

It's easy to stay home and watch TV. It's easy to walk into church on Sunday morning, drink coffee, eat cookies and then leave after the service is over. It's easy to go home right after work and relax. It's easy to not talk to anyone else and to ignore the issues happening in the world. It's easy to not make phone calls, to not write cards, to not say "hello," to not make eye contact and smile. It's easy to not put your shopping cart back and to leave it in the parking lot.

But just because life can be easy, it doesn't mean that taking the easy way out is the best way out.

It was my third time giving blood today. I've been woozy before, and it was comical when halfway through donating this time the nurse walked up to me, "Are you OK?"

"Yes."

A minute later. "Are you OK?"

"Yes."

Then two nurses were standing in front of me.

"You sure you're OK?"

"Yes." They looked skeptical. "Well, I'm hot."

That confirmed their thoughts, so they nudged me over and had me lay down instead of sitting up. When completed, they made me sit up little by little, and then finally told me to swing my legs over and when I felt OK that I could go to the canteen.

The moment I swung my legs over the edge, I started seeing stars. So I waited for them to clear, but it got worse and worse. So I turned back around and sat with my legs on the bed again.

They came to check on me, and I said I was seeing stars. So I laid back down again. Comically, they needed the bed, so they brought over another cot, had me slide onto it and then wheeled me into the corner. For "privacy," they put up a partition around me, gave me a cold cloth for my head and put a fan on me.

Oh my gosh. I was laughing and about dying of embarrassment as I laid in my little corner hut.

It would be easy for me to give up. It would be easy to just say I can't give blood. It would be easy, but it wouldn't be worth it. I'll keep going back, because I think that God calls us to give. And if I can help save a life by giving of an hour of my time, a little discomfort and a little wooziness, then it's worth it.

And it will be easy next time to have an excuse to eat a candy bar next time before I go.