Herding Elephants

Following last weeks incident I went back to school on Tuesday expecting to find an elephant in my classroom, instead I found a whole herd of them!
It started out by seeing the head clinical instructor in the hallway. She had emailed me over the weekend saying she knew I was late for clinicals and was asking what had happened. So there I was leaning on the front desk as I attempted to explain the whole thing once again. Thank God I work for a Christian university... Unfortunately/fortunately, I didn't just stop at the events of the day but I went on to continue to talk about what I had learned from the whole thing; that inviting someone to pray with you is a privilege that just may encourage them as much as it does you. Allowing others to witness what God is doing in your life is a powerful thing...
That same professor and I co-teach a lab. Later that afternoon when it was time for skills practice, I was surprised to see her start abruptly crying. Of all of the faculty she is one that is usually very controlled and has the most defined boundaries. Class was just beginning and the students where starting to come into the lab so I kicked them all out into the classroom and gave them a quiz.
By the time they finished the quiz she had regained composure and the class went on as usual. I didn't see her at all after class as she seemed to have left the campus hastily.
Later on that afternoon as I was asking our office administrator about my groups clinical paperwork, I found out that she had been recently diagnosed with cancer. My immediate thought was, "Oh no, what did I just say to her?" Perhaps it was the best thing I could have said. Of course I didn't know at the time that she had cancer, those comments came my own brush with vulnerability and I'm willing to bet that God planned it that way.