Healing at the hospital

Today was one of those crazy days – too much to get done and not enough time to do it all.

In between mowing the lawn and going out to dinner with our neighbors (they treated us to a local Italian place because I mowed their lawn while they were on vacation – without them asking me to!), I had a window of time to visit Pastor Byron (our Senior Adult Minister on staff with me at Armbrust Wesleyan) at the hospital. He had been in ICU and I wanted to see him before heading off to camp tomorrow for the week.

I did get to visit and pray with him in ICU and spent some time with his family in the waiting room, too, and closed my visit with them in prayer, too.

After prayer we visited for a little while longer and I said goodbye to the family and headed out the door to get home and relax a bit and then get ready for our fancy dinner-out with the neighbors.

In the hallway I was stopped by “Mary”, a middle-aged woman who said, “You’re a pastor?” half-question and half-statement. I acknowledged that yes, I was, and she began to tell me about her boyfriend who was currently in the CCU (Critical Care Unit). Mary told me that she was a Christian and that “Ben” was raised Catholic, but wasn’t a Christian. She told me that over the last few weeks they had been attending an Evangelical church together and that she truly thought Ben was close to making a decision to follow Christ.

She asked if I would go and talk with him. Of course I said yes! I asked her to take me to him, but she didn’t want him to know that she had “asked a pastor to come and talk with him”, so she gave me his room number and his name again and off I went.

I introduced myself to “Ben” and asked him how he was doing – he instantly went into patient/doctor mode, so I quickly stopped him and told him I wasn’t a doctor, but that I was a pastor. His response, “You don’t look like one!”

I loved that response and what took place over the next 2-hours was nothing short of a God-ordained moment in time where God’s will took place.

Ben told me during our conversation that he couldn’t possibly make a decision to follow Jesus because “he wasn’t ready”, he was too imperfect to have a relationship with the God of the universe. I told him that I was too! My response caught him off guard and he told me that he thought that once you become a Christian that you can’t sin anymore and that you’re not tempted to do anything wrong anymore. Ben further thought that if a Christian did sin, they were immediately destined for Hell. He told me that he felt like he needed to get to a place that he felt he was ready to stop doing wrong and only then could he give lordship to Jesus.

I told him that neither he nor I could ever get to that point ourselves. I told him of Isaiah’s “righteousness as filthy rags” passage (64:6). He seemed to understand that our “good deeds” are nothing without a Faith in Jesus Christ. He acknowledged to me that he would NOT be spending eternity in Heaven if “the hospital we’re in would suddenly crumble to the ground and we were both to die” (good use of current-context illustration, right?)

Ben still wanted to know that God would still accept him as a sinner, a non-perfect person.

Enter the parable of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:11-24) Retelling Ben the story opened up his eyes to the fact that the Father saw the son “…while he was still a long way off…” and that our God is a God of love.

When I finished telling Ben the story of the Prodigal Son and I asked him once again if he wanted to make a decision to follow Jesus, his response was “What do I need to do?”

What took place then was a powerful time of prayer and then I had Ben repeat some simple words of confession and commitment. Two strangers praying in a hospital room, hands held tight, words spoken with conviction, the Holy Spirit leading… it was beautiful.

After “Amen”, Mary happened to walk into the room and we told her what just took place. She was filled with emotion and excitement.

Before I left I took Ben’s number down. He has surgery on Monday. I’ll be away at Youth Camp, but I’m going to check in on him for sure. His words as he willingly gave me his phone number: “You need this because you’re the kind of guy that I know I’ll be talking to again.”

Thank you, Lord, for placing me at the hospital at that time for those moments. Thank You for allowing me the privilege of leading one of Your Children to a relationship with You. Please continue to use me however and wherever You wish.