Max Psych + Thessalonians
I wanted to apologize to my readers. Hopefully, there are still some left. I thought I was getting back into writing after ending the series of my life. However, the funk didn’t leave. I have to be more disciplined. If I am not disciplined with my relationship with the Lord, I won’t be disciplined in other areas of life. I know that I am made for something great, and I have been able to help so many people and be a presence for my patients. I know that my life has a lot more potential, and because of that, I have to be disciplined. Last year, I started really going to the gym and being consistent. At the end of nursing school, I was the heaviest I had ever been, about 185-190. I ended up losing a lot of my weight due to stress. I was a brand-new nurse and working at a maximum-security state hospital. I was so ecstatic! That was my dream to be a psych nurse and help patients like how I was! However, looking back, God attempted to warn me. There were a lot of road blocks that my stubborn self pushed out of the way to make something work that really wasn’t meant to be.
It reminds me of Paul in the book of Thessalonians. He had all these plans to visit and help, but he kept getting blocked. At first, I read those letters and just saw a mess—a lot of drama and unfinished business. But then I realized: Paul was writing from the 'aftermath.' He was trying to find his discipline again after being chased out of his dream city. He had to learn that his potential wasn't tied to one specific hospital or one specific city, but to his consistency with the Lord, regardless of the 'roadblocks' in his way.
Thessalonica wasn't some peaceful Sunday school setting. It was a high-pressure environment. When Paul showed up, he wasn't just preaching; he was starting a riot. The locals accused the new believers of being "world-turners"—people who were defying the laws of Caesar.
Imagine the scene: You finally find a faith that gives you hope, and within three weeks, the people who taught it to you are smuggled out of town in the middle of the night to save their lives. You are left standing there, a brand new "nurse of the soul," in a city that suddenly wants you gone.
That feeling of being "in the thick of it" is exactly what I felt as a new nurse. I was ecstatic to finally be in psych—my dream—but the environment was toxic. There were "roadblocks" everywhere. In 1 Thessalonians 2:14, Paul tells them, "For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators... you suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered." They weren't just dealing with "drama"; they were dealing with:
• Social Isolation: Being cut off from their families for their new "discipline."
• Legal Threats: Being watched by the Roman authorities as potential traitors.
Physical Fear: Wondering if they would be the next ones dragged into the street
I think about my "stubborn self" pushing through at that hospital. I thought discipline meant forcing a square peg into a round hole. But Paul’s letter shows us a different kind of discipline. He writes to people who are exhausted and scared, and he doesn’t tell them to "work harder." He tells them to stand firm.
Sometimes, the most disciplined thing you can do is recognize when you are in a "harrowing" environment and look for the God who is trying to redirect you. I pushed through roadblocks that were meant to be signs. Paul was "hindered" from going back to Thessalonica, and it forced him to write these letters instead.
If Paul hadn't been blocked, we wouldn't have these books. If I hadn't faced those roadblocks at the state hospital, I wouldn't be the nurse (or the writer) I am today.