It was four years ago that my friend Steve was getting ready for his bone marrow transplant. It reminds me of a story he told from his hospitalization for his second go-round with lymphoma.
About 4 in the morning one day, Steve's nurse was taking vital signs and checking IV and stuff. This was a male nurse, rather large, and not exactly the handsomest fellow around. (Pr Wiest said he could identify -- LOL!) This nurse had already been caring for Stephen for 3 nights at that point. Since Pr Wiest had woken up and because things were fairly quiet around the hospital, the nurse ventured to ask permission to speak with him for a bit.
"Steve, I notice from your chart that you drink." Pr Wiest said, "Of course I do. A couple good beers or some excellent scotch -- ah! it's a great thing."
The nurse mentioned, "I also notice from your chart that you smoke." Pr Wiest said, "Ooooh, yeah, there's nothing like a good fat stogie after dinner with your friends! Especially with some scotch."
Next the man commented, "Steve, I also have noticed in working with you the last several days that sometimes you lose your temper and might let loose with some cussing." Stephen answered, "Well, yeah, sometimes things just come out of your mouth...."
And then the nurse said, "Steve, I was raised Methodist. The other thing I noticed on your chart is that you're a pastor. A Lutheran pastor. And yet you drink and you smoke and sometimes you cuss. How do you reconcile that?"
What an opening! Pr Wiest told him about the fact that he was a sinner who drank and smoked and cussed, but that his Savior had taken his sin upon Him, died for it, and forgiven it, giving him His righteousness for his very own. He told the nurse that Christ died for all. He told the nurse that Christianity isn't about being good; it isn't about morality; it isn't about doing the right things. Rather, Christianity is about mercy for those who don't deserve it.
Pr Wiest knew I would be amused by his opportunity to witness. I had crabbed at him so often about how some people say our upstanding lives will motivate people to ask us about why we're different. But he was asked about Christianity because he wasn't doing the upstanding moral thing expected from a pastor.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I see that these blizzardy days have you as confused as I am. Today is Sunday not Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your blog.
LOL! Well, I'm more confused than you thought. I wasn't off a couple of days -- I was off by the whole month. Thanks for the heads-up; I adjusted the time-stamp on the post.
ReplyDeleteMore Pr. Wiest stories please. The warm fuzzies feel good during these cold days!
ReplyDeleteNot much of a "story," Erin, but there's that one subject-line on an email that he sent me. I had written about arranging a time to stop by and see him and Donna. This was about a month before they found the lymphoma the second time, so he was doing okay with his health.
ReplyDeleteAt the time, my mind was spinning with Philip's schoolwork, because we'd just decided that he was going to attend a state school instead of private. And we had to get through two unplanned-for one-year classes in the next four months to fulfill their requirements. Then of course there were the other kids' studies too. So on my email to Pr Wiest, the subject line was "Drowning in Arithmetic, Algebra, and Spelling." When he wrote back, his subject line was "Drowning in I Won't Say What, but the Cross is my Snorkel." I love that!
Oh, and then there was the time we were talking about the similarities and the few tiny differences between Jeremiah 23 and 33. He had mentioned that Jeremiah's writing had been overseen by the CPR (the Committee for Propogation of Redundancy). As the emails bopped back and forth, and as we began to discuss typology in the Old Testament, he changed the subject line to "Dept of Redundancy Dept, augmented by the Dept of Multivalence Bureau." Such fun memories!
I was going to say, based on your story that it should have been the CPRC, but I see that he covered that later on.
ReplyDeleteReally, though, the main reason I am leaving you a comment is because my word verification is "yayweks" and I really liked it. :)