The Purpose of a Wiseman
I have a really inspiring story for you this week but first, I want to bring up a talk that I listened to by Catholic speaker Chris Stefanick. Chris discussed why people are leaving the church and increasingly finding religion to be irrelevant to their daily lives. To counter this, he developed a unique way of sharing Jesus and the gospel which has proven extremely effective at winning hearts and changing minds. He has simplified the Gospel message by breaking it down into the five following points:
God created us with a purpose.
We are broken.
God sent his son Jesus to heal our brokenness.
We are invited into conversion.
After conversion, we should immerse ourselves in the life of the church.
Throughout the next few weeks, I am going to take a deeper dive on each of Chris’ five points.
God Created Us With A Purpose
Many years ago, I worked as a physical therapist in a nursing home. Most of the residents were there on a long-term basis due to mental and physical disabilities which prevented them from living on their own.
Among these long-term residents was a man who I will call Mr. Wiseman. He was there because he had severe arthritis throughout his entire body and could no longer walk or take care of himself. Just standing up required assistance and extreme effort. It would take him about 20 seconds to rise from his wheelchair. You could hear his knees creaking loudly throughout the entire process. Clearly, he was dealing with severe pain on top of everything else. He was able to propel his wheelchair throughout the facility but at a snail’s pace. Although a bit on the quiet side, he was always extremely pleasant.
Mr. Wiseman was different from most of the long-term residents in that he was only dealing with physical disabilities. Mentally, he was as sharp as a tack. Most of the other long-term residents were dealing with some form of severe dementia.
One day as I was walking down the main nursing home hallway, I noticed Mr. Wiseman heading to the main meeting room in his wheelchair for one of the planned activities. As I watched him, I realized that something remarkable was happening. He was helping another resident get to the activity as well. This resident was also wheelchair-bound but unable to propel herself because of her confusion from dementia. Mr. Wiseman would push her wheelchair a few feet then push his own to catch up. He declined any offers from us to help him get her to the activity. This went on for at least 15 minutes until they reached the main meeting room. It must have been quite a painful effort for Mr. Wiseman. Once at the activity, I noticed how he greeted all of the other residents and then participated in the activity even though it was geared to a very low cognitive level.
Throughout the next few weeks and months, I observed these same behaviors from Mr. Wiseman on several occasions with many of the residents. It was truly one of the most inspirational things I have ever witnessed. Generally, when someone with no cognitive limitations was admitted to our nursing facility for long-term care, they almost always withdrew from everything. They did not want to be around the other residents who were suffering from dementia. They were understandably frustrated and angry and wanted no part of living where they were. But Mr. Wiseman took a different approach. He looked outside of himself and saw the good that he could accomplish in an extremely difficult situation. He decided to help out and make the life of those around him better. He did this in small ways but at great sacrifice to himself.
Mr. Wiseman had lost just about everything a person can lose. He had lost his wife years before, and his family rarely came to visit. He had lost his freedom, his health, his mobility, his house, and basically all of his material goods. But he never lost his purpose, and his purpose was simple. He was making the choice to love those people who God had put in his life at that moment. That was his purpose and that is our purpose.