Matthew 7 --- Take your time and Read the whole passage.The sign did say, Emergency Medical Clinic, but once inside it was more like a circus practice performance. It appeared like the mentally disturbed patients were running the asylum. (this is very difficult to describe without a little help from your imagination, so please ... shake your head, roll your eyes, flap your arms and get a little crazy... Here goes!) (Oh, and remember I walked in for help???)
... A woman in a colorful floral patterned uniform was yelling at a man who was holding a bloody rag to his mouth (with possibly had half of the rag in his mouth), "What is your first and last name, PLEEEEASE, and try to talk like you have some brains!". He groaned a few incoherent syllables and stopped. As her weird painted on eyebrows lifted ominously and then pointed very quickly at her buzzard-like beak of a nose, She raised her voice even more "You don't get it do you, we have to fill out these forms before we can treat you!" (She needed thumped on the head with a heavy class ring!)
... A young male? A medical assistant? (still not sure if I have this right because of my straw impinged, blurred vision) This individual was dressed in an almost florescent orange jumpsuit and apparently was tasked with the job of distracting and entertaining children in the midst of the traumatized chaos. BUT if his outfit wasn't disturbing enough, there was large mallet-like protrusion hanging from his face that "bopped" every child he came in contact with. This object was so obscenely large that it was down right scary even to an adult. He didn't even remotely seem aware of the pandemonium and additional stress he was actually causing in the midst of "just doing his job!".... Wait a minute, my vision was coming back and this scene has just multiplied by the intensity of its insanity:
... all the staff had these "mallet-like boppers" positioned on their faces and these objects actually had words written on them. I was ducking and weaving to avoid getting hit by the erratic movements of the staff ... but I did catch some of the words: protocol, password, procedure, protection, preservation, practice, profile, pre-qualify, permission. I don't get it? Good words, and there is a need for processes, but these processes were preventing the staff from doing what was truly needed ... emergency medical care. They were failing to care for the patient. Matthew 7:3 – “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”
When the support structure (the beam or log) is all our eyes can see, then we cannot begin to decide a course of rescue for those who may only need a bit of straw (the mote, the splinter) removed from the corner of their eyes. It is sad but true, some soul rescue organizations have become so focused in the qualification of the people, the processes and the demographic relevance of their mission that they can't see the need sitting right in front of them.
This writ is in no way a war cry to abandon planning and processes, nor is it meant to throw caution to the wind, nor become an excuse for poor planning and lame execution of ministry. It is a feeble attempt to push the reset button on why we are here on this side of Heaven. The gain and accumulation of stuff (tangible or intangible) will turn to sand and slip through our fingers at the end of our days, but the eternal ventures of love for people will be the substance that will embrace us as we end our days on this spinning ball of dust. Matthew 7:25 – “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."
Eternity, right now is in a constant state of flux because it is contained in fragile, nervous earthen vessels, but the constant in those vessels (if Faith has found the Savior) is Jesus Christ. Christ in you and me is the Hope of Glory; and there will be absolutely no regrets in extending that hope to the hopeless through the conduit of the gift of our every day living.
Make sure your support system is neither the beam of personal pride nor the straw of private pain … Trust in, and live openly for Jesus.
HLFA,
Jeff