This is a true story... Jack (I've changed his name) was 15 and he was lying in a hospital bed with both of his legs in plaster from his toes to his hips. He had been joyriding in a car he and his friend had had stolen in broad day-light, enjoying some handbrake turns in the industrial estate and then a brief chase from the local police. The chase part was brief because he lost control of the car and crashed.
He had broken his femur (thigh bone) in both legs and he was very sore at first, so we gave him some morphine to get his pain under control. (I should maybe say at this point that I used to be a nurse on an orthopaedic ward). Within a few minutes, his wincing died down, his pain eased off, his breathing slowed down… Mission accomplished – happy patient! Or so you would think.
Within an hour, peaceful young Jack began to get a little bit edgy. I was standing at the x-ray box with one of the doctors (Dr Love!) when all of a sudden there was a funny smell in the air. Smoke? We looked at each other baffled and then we heard a yelling match kick off. One of the nurses had found the source. Jack.
Jack had been put in a side-room and we thought the TV in there would keep a young guy happy in a boring hospital ward. But no, he wanted more than TV… he wanted his cigarettes! As Dr Love and I rushed into the room, what did we see? Jack the lad and Jill the nurse (changed her name too – sounded good together) in a tug of war with rope replaced with oxygen tubing! And there he was, young Jack one hand tugging away on his oxygen tubing and the other sporting a Lambert & Butler cigarette! The reason the nurse shouted out was because a flame or heat source plus pure oxygen creates one pretty big fireball.
Thankfully, there was no fireball this time but our Jack demanded that he be allowed to smoke. We explained that he wasn’t allowed to smoke in the hospital. We searched Jacks locker, confiscated his cigarettes and explained that smoking was bad for his health – in more ways than one! So that was that… or so we thought.
Honestly, over the next 4 hours, young Jack didn’t like me. I went in to give him his painkillers at tea time, and he hit me with dogs abuse all because he couldn’t have a cigarette. A nurse went in to give him his food and he flicked the tray out of her hands and onto the floor. Things were getting out of hand.
Since I was in charge it was my responsibility to calm things down. I went into his room, pulled up a chair next to his bed and said calmly… “Jack, we can’t allow you to have a cigarette. For a start, you’re on high doses of morphine, you’ve been through some amount of trauma today and you’re in a hospital bed with two broken legs. Please understand… all we’re trying to do is help you, care for you and mend your broken legs.”
Jack turned his head and looked into my eyes. He looked apologetic… then said, “I want a cigarette!” At that, he turned his gaze towards the TV, pointed the remote and as he turned up the volume as far as it went he just yelled over and over again, “I want a cigarette!”
I thought to myself, “you wee rascal!” I Walked out the room and closed the door behind me. I thought he’d settle down. Guess what? He didn’t - and other patients began to complain. So I went into his room and calmly listened to a couple of Choruses of “I want a cigarette!” (almost tempted to join in) and then I said, ok… there is one way, and only one way you could possibly have a cigarette… silence! “I’m listening” he said.
I said, “you can sign yourself out… discharge yourself… and then you can leave the hospital, cigarettes and lighter in your hand and light up as soon as you get outside the front door… but listen Jack… let me remind you of one or two things… Look down… you have 2 broken legs in plaster… you were in severe pain until we gave you painkillers… that will wear off and you’ll need more. We are trying to help you because we care about you and want to help you walk again. But if you sign yourself out, we can’t help you anymore.”
“I want a cigarette!”
“Ok, shall I get the form?”
“I want a cigarette!”
“That’ll be a yes!”
I got the form, he signed it, smiled and I gave him back his cigarettes. I turned to walk out the room and he said,
“Can I get some painkillers for when this morphine wears off?”
“Sorry… hospital patients only.”
“well can you get me some crutches or a wheelchair or something so I can leave?”
“Sorry… hospital patients only.”
“can you get me a porter to take me to the front door.”
“Sorry… hospital patients only. You discharged yourself from our care. I don’t have responsibility for you any more… But I tell you what, I will tear this form up, we can forget all that’s happened today and we’ll get on with caring for you… But you have to let us.”
With a muttering of words I cannot repeat, Jack shuffled off the bed, and would you believe it, onto the floor and proceeded to drag himself out of his room. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was watching a young man with broken legs defy all care and concern for him all because of his own wants – all because of a cigarette!
“Jack”… I said. He ignored me and huffed and puffed as he dragged himself out of his room and up the corridor towards the exit. Visitors were coming in and must have been wondering what kind of physiotherapy we practiced at this hospital!
Again, I said “Jack… we only want to care for you.”
He continued his stubborn shuffle.
“Jack… I can help you right now if you’d let me.”
He continued his stubborn shuffle.
“Jack… all this for a cigarette? That’ll not make you well again… but we can.”
He continued his stubborn shuffle… for a few more metres.
“Jack”
He stopped. He lay his face down on the corridor floor and covered his head with his hands. “Jack?” I knelt beside him. I could hear him sob. “I’m sorry” he said.
I replied… “start again?”
“Aye” he said….
So I picked him up off the floor and carried him back to his bed. We got Jack settled in, his room rearranged, TV on. I stood in front of him, pulled out his self-discharge form and tore it up in front of him and said, “It never happened.” I turned to walk out the room but Jack stopped me… “Nurse” he said. I turned and saw him with his hands outstretched towards me… he was giving me his cigarettes. “Good man” I said. And walked out.
I hope just now that there is a question hanging in your mind. If there is no question hanging, may I offer you one to think over for a second? Why have I’ve told this story? What’s it's significance?
The overall answer to that is this: they paint for us such a true picture of what we are like in relation to God. This story is really an analogy… a portrait of humankind’s mistakes and weaknesses. You see, we’re all like Jack in so many ways.
When Jack was brought onto the ward, we had nothing but compassion for this poor wee guy with his broken legs. We saw his desperate need and tried to fix him. In the same way, God looks on us with compassion… A man of God called Isaiah (30:18) tells us that …the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. Our God is in fact so compassionate that he actively moves to show his compassion.
Like Jack, we have brokenness in our lives… and more often than not, our greatest problem is the brokenness of our souls. You see, to use another analogy, we are like the first ever McLaren SLR Mercedes. As that car rolls off the assembly line, the manufacturer can look at the car, then look at his plans, then look at the car and declare with a smile, “it’s good!” But in no time at all, that car is on the road and it gets dirty, chipped with gravel, and suffers wear and tear. In the same way, whether we like it or not, God made us (he is our manufacturer) and when the first human rolled off the assembly line, God looked at the man, looked at his plans, looked at the man again and said, “it’s good.” But in no time at all, on the road of life, man suffered wear and tear because he sinned. And sin makes humans less than what we were intended to be. We all sin, and we all show the effects of it. We shout in anger, we gossip in envy, we value lies more than truth. I could go on, but let me just say… it is sin that makes us broken.
But, take heart… the Bible tells us in Psalm 34:18 that God is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. How does he save them? Psalm 147:3 He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. He cares with compassion and actively moves to help.
He helps by guiding us as to the way we should live… to live lives where love is a priority… so is joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). He tells us to steer clear of the things that cause us to crash… lying, stealing, lusting, jealously envying, dishonouring people, killing people… these are the things that break us.
Now as you notice from the story of Jack, having one who is compassionate and willing to help doesn’t automatically mean we get fixed. We have to let the one who cares help. Jack didn’t like the guidelines we had set out and so decided he would make up his own rules. That’s called rebellion. This lad rejected the care and provision of the one looking after him and made up his own rules.
And guess what? By not living in line with the ways God sets out for us, we make up our own rules. That’s called rebellion too. In fact, let’s call it what it is… sin. The Bible tells us that God sees our sin and says all have sinned and fall short of God’s glorious standard (Romans 3:23 NLT). And what does God think of our rebellion and sin? We’re told that God observed the extent of the people’s wickedness, and he saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. It broke his heart (Genesis 6:5-6).
Here’s another question for you… what do you think God did when he saw the sin and rebellion in every person he had made? What do you think he did when we, metaphorically speaking, turn up the TV and stick to our “I want a cigarette” guns? Turn his back on us? Refuse to care for us? Even worse… crumple us up and forget about us?
No! He calls on our name, again and again. So great is his love (1 John 4:16) and so amazing is His compassion that he will constantly try to get you to give up on making up your own rules. Even when you are crawling along the floor of life, obviously aware of your brokenness, but still continuing your stubborn shuffling, God will quietly plead for you to allow him to fix you, by calling on your name.
Let me show you one real weakness in my analogy… Do you remember when Jack made it clear he did not want my help and he signed the discharge form? Remember how I refused him help saying, “sorry, hospital patients only”? Well, God is far more gracious than me! That means he would give Jack crutches and help even though he did not deserve any. And this is what he does so often. Let me ask you another question? Have you got a roof over your head? Do you have food to eat? Shoes on feet? Do you know all of these are gifts from God? Whether we acknowledge that or not, the Bible tells us that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father (James 1:17).
Now to me, all that we’ve learned about God in this story is already pretty amazing. But I want to tell you something that eclipses all of that! You see, when you love someone and you see their brokenness, you try and do all you can to take that brokenness away. Isn’t that what we do when we try to console someone who is lonely, when we encourage someone who is down on themselves because they’ve failed, when we buy flowers to cheer up a loved one who is sad? We try and fix them. And that’s what God has done for each of us.
You see while we were still stubbornly shuffling along because of our brokenness, God sent his one and only son to show his love by somehow taking all of our brokenness from us and onto himself in a way that meant that he suffered for our rebellion so we wouldn’t have to. Let me put that another way… This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God (1 John 4:10). Just in case you missed the point, let me help you realise that God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
I have great joy in saying, Jesus Christ is the one who fixes you. He’s the one of whom it was written was sent to bind up the broken-hearted (Is61:1), He’s the one who was sent so that your rebellion could be excused and forgiven. He’s the one who walked this earth 2000 years ago and lived a life with zero rebellion… He was good with a capital G. He’s the one who willingly surrendered himself to being broken on a cross of shame and from that cross cried out, “Father, forgive them…” forgive their rebellion, “they don’t know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34). He’s the one who hangs on the cross, a gift from God… with love!
So you see… whenever we stop our stubborn shuffling, and like Jack realise our foolishness in trying to do things without the help of the only one who can fix us… when we realise that he’s there to help we can say sorry. And what does God do when we ask for forgiveness for our rebellion? He takes you up into his arms, takes you back into his care and fixes you with his total forgiveness, with his unfailing love.
One more question… do you want God to fix you? This is how you do it… you say sorry for your rebellion, for your sin. You stop your stubborn shuffling through life, you let God take over, trusting that he knows what you need more than you’ll ever know, and you let him love you and restore you. That's called repentance.
A few weeks later, Jack walked out of the ward with a future. If he had continued crawling, he would never have walked again. You too can walk on in life with a future, if only you would trust in Jesus.
Those who wait on the Lord shall soar on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not faint.
He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:12
