The alarm signaled that it was time to get up and do it all over again. Life would continue as soon as I could summon the will to keep on living. Every day I linger in these moments beneath warm covers amid the security of fluffy pillows dreading what lies ahead … the struggle.

After hitting the snooze twice I finally decided … to keep on doing it.

My life is a struggle in every respect. This does not make me unique. We are all besieged by problems. Interpersonal troubles and sickness along with less discriminating systemic injustices in this selfish and hateful world define our reality. We must remind ourselves that we are not as worthless as the struggle makes us feel.

I am a registered nurse by trade. Recently the Department of Education decided that nursing was no longer to be considered a “professional” occupation.

Threat to humanity

Systemic injustices have become more pervasive. People of all races can now experience that feeling of being unseen, devalued and mistreated in spite of intellect, effort or integrity. Shame takes root when people are treated like trash by their society.

The system that denies your value as a human is a liar, and a machine that tells you it is okay to devalue another human is broken. It is a threat to our own humanity.

Nursing is not just what I do, it is who I am. Most nurses feel that nursing is a sacred trust and are very proud of what they do. This declassification is a perfect example of the dehumanization.

Health care in America is engulfed in flames. I bear witness to staffing shortages, burnout and sharp decline in quality of care every time a loved one goes into the hospital. The protracted beating nurses endured during the COVID years left many feeling degraded and mistreated. We showed the way through that crisis and were lauded as heroes. The system that once praised us now downgrades nurses, mocks the trauma we suffered and disrespects our dedication.

Nurses are the same men and women who did their duty in the face of great personal risk then. Calling us “unprofessional” now that the danger has passed is cheap and cowardly.

Paying the price

The workplace has become an oppressive place for many. A considerable emotional investment is required to get through the day. Everyone seems out for themselves, demanding vengeance and vindication for verifiable wrongs they suffer daily without recompense. Benefits are cut, unions broken and loyalty no longer exists between employee and employer. The ego, finding no satisfaction in its rage against the machine that injured it, turns on more convenient targets like coworkers and family members.

When the system remains impervious to suffering and refuses to change, the rage turns inward. This leads to the self-persecution, shame and despair that we drag around like a wet blanket. These emotional beatings magnify the injustices that consume our soul. Many fall into the traps of booze, drugs and moral turpitude that surrounds us in a desperate search for meaning or purpose.

The March 2023 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine published an article titled, “Beyond Burnout — From Individual Resilience to Institutional Reform.” The thrust of that piece was that the term “burnout” incorrectly blames the individual. It advocates for institutional changes to address the “moral injury” caused by systemic injustice. Moral injury is the spiritual wound suffered in response to an abnormal or unethical environment. The article focused on medicine, but moral injury occurs across all occupations in our society. Every day we see strong people who have been broken by life and reduced to a shriveled reminder of who they once were.

Our society gaslights us with messaging that says we are something less than what God created us to be. Systemic injustice can only thrive in darkness and lies.

Public trust

For 22 consecutive years, nursing has been ranked as the most honest and ethical profession in the Gallup “Honesty and Ethics” poll. The public trusts nurses more than doctors, pharmacists and certainly more than politicians. Nurses who see the relationship between themselves and their patients as a sacred trust will be harder to exploit and control than those who only see their profession as a way to obtain a check. Trust is spiritual currency.

The public whom we care for rank nurses first in ethics and trust. That same public has nothing but disdain for the politicians and officials who are in charge of the system which downgraded us to “unprofessional.” The public grants nurses that trust because of the work we do transcends a job. This disconnect drives the despair and upset suffered by so many because the system does not see their value.

While in the throes of my troubles of the past few months I have found strength in the Bible verse found at Ecclesiastes 3:14. It says, “I have come to know that everything the true God makes will endure forever. There is nothing to add to it and nothing to subtract from it. The true God has made it this way, so that people will fear (respect) him.” Each one of us is God’s creation. Our humanity and our worth are fixed constants established by the Almighty.

That scripture helps me remember that my worth cannot be negotiated, appraised or downgraded. Any voice — be that a government agency, perfidious former spouse, or our own wounded ego lashing out in vitriolic fear — that tells us we are less than anyone else is a liar. The voice that fills us with false pride or joy when other humans suffer systemic injustices and cruelty is also lying when it tells us that “those people” deserve the evils visited upon them.

None of us has the ability to create life and neither does this system that has earthly authority over us. This machine did not create our value therefore it has no authority to subtract from it. Each of us is precious to our Creator. His grace heals those moral injuries and spiritual wounds when we refuse to allow this transient, faithless system to blind us to His eternal, loyal love.

Truth be told

We can escape the darkness inherent to this current social order with the divine light of truth. Nurses, bricklayers, accountants, mothers and fathers can all lessen the spiritual damages we suffer by ignoring the lies. The lying voices have no power over you unless you choose to believe them. Drop that wet blanket, stand up tall and reclaim your humanity with dignity.

Instead of dreading the struggle ahead when that alarm goes off tomorrow, spend a few of those last warm, comfortable moments under the covers meditating on what you can do personally to share that divine light that guides you to grace with those you will encounter that day. Take the time to pray for strength and wisdom.

Then get up after hitting the snooze twice — not because the only other choice was to commit suicide — but to embrace the beauty of life and go share some love with the rest of humanity.