Rick Lee James, a hospital chaplain, met a critically ill patient who wept hearing John 3:16 and called it "the greatest thing" he'd ever heard. The encounter reminded Rick that the gospel's core is love and joy, not condemnation, and that chaplains should listen without imposing beliefs.
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Welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm your host, Rick Lee James, and I'm so glad that you're here with me today. I wanted to just share something today that I've been thinking about for a little while. It really comes from a hospital encounter that I had in the not too distant past. I'm gonna, of course, keep anonymity in this conversation because as chaplains, as people who work at a hospital, it's very important that we keep the keep things confidential and people and names. And so I'm just gonna share a few details around what happened vaguely, but keep with the core of what happened in this encounter with the patient because it reminded me of the joy of the gospel, of the good news. And I just wanted to share it with you today. It is very rare, and I need to make this preface, I guess, it is very rare that as a chaplain I spend any time with people in what we would call 'praying through' with them in a lot of evangelical circles. Praying through, if you're not familiar with that concept, or praying the sinner's prayer, is something that was invented by evangelicals, I believe. It wasn't really something that— it's not in the Bible, it's not something Jesus taught, it's not something that ancient Christianity knew anything about. And yet for a lot of people, it's something that is essential to their faith. And it's not that— it's not showing things in the Bible like this, getting right with God, repents. But the Bible speaks a lot more, and Jesus speaks a lot more about what's called repentance, an actual turning, an actual change. So things like the Sinner's Prayer, or coming to the altar and praying through, asking Jesus in your heart, these are things that were made up as tools in order to help people come to an understanding of repentance. But sometimes it doesn't always translate very well, I guess, when you're trying to talk to people that haven't grown up under that concept, or if you're trying to explain— somebody wants to show like, where in Christianity did this come from, or where is this in the Bible? It's a little more difficult to explained. So these are tools. They're not bad tools. They're just tools that were made to help understand, especially when working with children and people who see in very black and white terms. So all that is to say, I don't spend time in the hospital going around and praying through the Sinner's Prayer with people unless they ask me to do that, because part of what being a chaplain is, is not imposing my views upon people, but to listen to where they find meaning, value, purpose, connection, and transcendence. So I walked into a room one day and a patient had been very sick, very ill, and very critically ill actually, and had been intubated. And today I noticed that the patient was awake and alert and had been extubated, meaning they removed the tubing that was helping him to breathe in his throat. And I asked him if he would like me to come in and visit for a while with him, and he affirmed that. And as we talked, he just seemed desperate to hear something hopeful. And so I started speaking to him, just some words of hope and compassion for him. And then I asked him about if he had any particular faith affiliation he was a part of. Did he— was he a Christian? Was he Muslim? Was he a Buddhist? I mean, different things that I'll ask people because we want to make sure to give the proper care to them based on their preferences. And he began telling me about his roots in a particular church and how he'd gone away from that and had made a lot of mistakes in his life. He felt very saddened by choices that he made, maybe even choices that brought him to the place where he was now. And as we talked about it, and I could see he was needing some hope and some good news. It seemed like maybe family had cut off from his life or he had cut off from them. And so I just reminded him in that moment that he mattered very much, that God loves him, that the people in the hospital who work there, that we care about him, that we want the very best for him. Because this is not our hospital, this is God's hospital, and we work on God's behalf for him. And he started tearing up, and he asked me to tell him more. And I said, "Well, God loves you so much." And all I could think of was John 3:16, and I just said, "God so loved the world and so loved you that he gave his only Son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but that the world through him might be saved. I said, that's how much you're loved. God doesn't want to condemn you. God wants to love you. God wants to save you. And this man, he was very, very difficult to understand because his throat hurt so bad and He was having trouble talking, but I could tell he was deeply moved. And he said, "That's the greatest thing I've ever heard. I can't believe it." And it was interesting because he was so struck by those simple words from the Gospel. And he said, asked me for a couple things from the office that spiritual care gets for people, like Bibles and things. And so I did that. I said, "Well, give me a few minutes." Let me come back, you know. And so I came back. And when I got back, the thing that really struck me about this is he said, "Can you tell me what you told me again?" So again I told him, I said, "God loves you so much that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but that the world through him might be saved. And I think I even used the man's name, if I recall. I said, "That you might be saved, that God so loved you." And he again became very emotional, and he just said, "That is the greatest news I've ever heard. Thank you. That's the best news I've ever heard. Will you pray with me?" And so we just prayed together. So all that, just giving you very limited details about the encounter It struck me that day how often I have lost sight of the joy of the gospel, of the joy in life, that God loves me and God loves the world so much that he gave his son. That God came through Jesus not to condemn, but that the world through him might be saved. And I'm reminded of the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Not one of those fruit is condemnation. God's Spirit, God's presence, the presence of Jesus, the judgment of Jesus is for our good. The judgment of Jesus is that we are saved. The judgment of Jesus 2,000 years ago on the cross, hanging there, to the people who hung him there and nailed him to the tree was, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." So I just wanted to put this story out there today just as a reminder to all of us of how good God is, of how grateful I hope we all are for our salvation. In this nation that is increasingly polarized, that is increasingly wanting to see things in very childish ways where things are only black and white with no nuance, where people change their morals and values constantly, especially in the church. Based on their favorite news sites and politicians. I wanted to remind us that the true heart of the gospel is this joyful message, not of condemnation, but of salvation. And it is not to condemn each other, but to love each other. To offer a message of peace and salvation and joy. And I hope that maybe today, just by telling this story, the reason I told this story is to help some of us who have trouble seeing that sometimes reconnect with the joy of the greatest news that there is, that God has called us friend, that God not only loves us, but he likes us, that God sent Jesus into the world, that God came as Jesus into the world in this perichoresis dance between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that still interacts with us today, post-Pentecost, post-resurrection, post-crucifixion, post-birth of Jesus, going all the way back to the creation of the earth. And now, as creation is still groaning and is still awaiting its final birth, its final creation, its re-creation, be reminded that you are loved. And no one in this earth has ever been perfect but Jesus, and no one on this earth has ever been unloved. Thank you so much for listening to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm Rick Lee James. Just wanted to remind you, you can go to my site, rickleejames.com, for more information. I do have a few places I'm playing coming up, quite a few actually, so If you're not following me on Bands in Town, you might want to follow me there. Things are getting busy and I'm excited to be able to travel, share music, speak. Having some good days and still working like crazy at the hospital. But thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. I believe we're going to have some guests again very soon. I'm still working on that and doing some scheduling, but things are getting back a little bit to normal in life. Still kind of busy with board certification, but we are getting there. So God bless you. Thank you again for listening to Voices in My Head.
