The Nurse Who Wouldn't Stay Quiet

In 2013, a nurse named Erin Marie Olszewski walked into a hospital administrator's office in New York and refused to falsify patient records. Her supervisors had made it clear — follow the protocol as written, don't raise concerns publicly, and certainly don't speak to anyone outside the building. The message was simple: compliance equals career.

Erin said no.

She knew what she had seen. She knew what was true. And no amount of institutional pressure could make her unsee it. When colleagues whispered that she was risking everything — her license, her livelihood, her reputation — she gave an answer that any first-century apostle would have recognized: "I have to answer to a higher authority than this hospital."

That phrase echoes across two thousand years. When Peter and the apostles stood before the Sanhedrin in Acts 5, the high priest demanded to know why they kept preaching after being explicitly ordered to stop. Peter's response was immediate and unwavering: "We must obey God rather than human beings."

Notice Peter didn't negotiate. He didn't apologize. He didn't promise to tone it down. He had witnessed the risen Christ, and no council on earth could make him un-witness it.

Every believer eventually faces a moment where obedience to God and compliance with the world pull in opposite directions. The apostles teach us that when that moment comes, faithfulness isn't reckless — it's the only reasonable response to a living Savior who conquered the grave.