A couple days ago I met someone who made all the empty moments of doing ministry shrink away into obscurity. I met a man who was hopelessly disabled and most likely terminally ill. A middle aged man who never had the opportunity to lead the kind of life most of us take for granted.
But first let me back up to earlier in the day. Someone came to me and asked me if I knew what the Hebrew word Shammah meant. (unfortunately, right after completing Hebrew language courses at seminary about 7 years ago, I accidentally forgot to transfer all that data from brain's "ram" (or was it cram) to my brain's hard drive. I think I lost most of it in a power outage to my head.) It wasn't too hard to find it on the Internet. It means "to be present." Jehovah Shammah "The Lord is there." It comes from the closing statement of Ezekiel (48:35). Can you imagine what heaven is going to be like someday? Jehovah Shammah! As one of the other chaplain's stated, "You just can't capture the depth of that statement with the English language."
Back to my story, I was doing this visit with Shelly, my co-worker who is the social worker on the team I serve with. She too is a Christian. We often do initial visits together because the information we are assessing for has a few areas of overlap. As a chaplain one of my responsibilities is to report a brief summary of a spiritual background/beliefs on our incoming patients. I try to get to know people a little and let them warm up to me before I go to the deeper questions. I never ask presumptive questions at the onset like, "What church do you belong to?" I first listen to the person talk about who they are and where the journey in life has taken them. As I listen I try to be alert for language that gives me a hint or a glimpse of that person's world view. I also look for clues in the home like wall decorations, literature, music they are listening to, even TV they might be watching.
With this new gentleman, (I'll just call him Mike, not his real name), I was already beginning to come to some conclusions before I asked him about his beliefs. I heard him use the word "blessed" several times and . I heard instrumental Hymns of the Christian faith on his CD player.
When I got to where I was ready to broach the subject of spiritual beliefs, I said, "Tell me about your spiritual beliefs, Mike." Not a whole lot of people come right out and say, "I am a Christian." Most say they believe in God or that they believe they are going to heaven or that they are a member of such and such church. Mike went right to the heart of his beliefs.
He replied, "I believe that Jesus was born into this world to save me. I believe He is the Son of God who died to pay for my sins and I believe that after he was buried He rose from the dead. I believe I'll be in heaven someday because I believe in Him." This said with the most humble, sincere, meek attitude and yet with such faith and conviction.
Mike then went on to talk about the different congregations he has fellowshipped with over the years. As well, Mike also talked about the challenges of having a disability all his life and the tragedies he has experienced especially over the past couple of years. In summary of it all he said, "In spite of it all, I really feel like God has blessed me and my family all my life." Not one drop of bitterness towards God or his own lot in life. I was in the presence of a man whose heart, mind, and soul were totally surrendered to the sovereignty of God.
As we talked, I was choking back the tears. Oh that I could have this man's testimony of faith on a video or CD so that other's would see how small there problems are in comparison to this man's. And even more importantly to see how trusting and rock solid his faith in Christ is! If only the lady around the corner from his room could hear what this man has been through and what he believes!
AS we talked more he shared that about a year ago a sudden event in his personal health almost took his life. His life was spared and now the only spiritual issue in life was that he felt totally inadequate: unable to serve the Lord and physically be able do something to glorify God. "I feel like God brought me back from that for a reason but I just don't seem to know why."
In an instant I truly felt God leading to use the moment to teach this gentle spirit how valuable he still was to God. 'MIke, hang with me for a moment, I think I can help you with this. How was this universe created?"
God spoke it into existence." he replied.
"Correct", I said. "And the Gospel of John, first chapter: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.' Everything was created through 'the Word' and 'the Word became flesh' just like you stated a while ago, right?" He responded with an affirmative nod of his head. "Mike, you don't have much left in life, but what is it that you still have an unlimited supply of?"
After a few moments, you could see his face change with that "ah ha" look that a person gets when they get it, "Words", he responded quietly.
"Mike, for the last 20 minutes you have been blessing Shelly and I with your testimony. Do you understand how powerful your words are?"
Oh Wow, you could see the looks coming across his face! Relief! Excitement! Revelation! Empowerment! Mike suddenly found meaning and purpose for this season of his life. Shelly asked him to consider making a video of his faith and testimony. WE offer this service to anyone who wants to make any kind or recording for any reason for their family and friends. Mike said he would think about it.
After I prayed with him and left the room, I looked back. I wanted to remember what God had done in there that day. It was, in every sense of the word, a "Jehovah Shammah" experience.
(Psalms 34:18-19 NKJV) The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
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