The Lady with the Lamp—and a heart that followed God

One of my favorite female role models is a lady who is credited with being the founder of modern nursing: Florence Nightingale.

You know, the “Lady with the Lamp”? She was a trailblazer in discovering that the environment in which a sick person heals makes all the difference. She believed that hospitals should “do the sick no harm” and that they should be clean and tidy. She also believed nurses should be dedicated, caring and driven. And she did her work with all her heart. Not only was she a nurse, but she was a statistician and a social reformer/ healthcare advocate.

But despite all her work, which still impacts all of us today who visit hospitals, something else sticks out to me about her: her faith and her outlook on life.

She is credited with these words in her writings:

“If I could give you information of my life it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I have never refused God anything.”

What a way with words.

“I have never refused God anything.”

That line gets me.

How often have I heard that still voice urging me to do something yet I hesitated or didn’t act?

She worked with all her heart and she loved God with it too.

What a testimony.

What a challenge.

We often think we are insignificant and the things we do today will be washed away after we have gone on.

But Florence still is honored. Nurses participate in ceremonial lamp lightings. Hospitals and patients of today are universally impacted by sanitation practices hundreds of years later.

Your today makes a difference.

Your faith makes a difference.

Your heart makes a difference.

You never know who you’ll impact or how many tomorrows will benefit from one today.

Keep going.

Keep loving.

Keep following Jesus.