Can you carry a stretcher?

People started running all over Capernaum when they heard he was in town.

Children leaving their playground. Mothers leaving their kitchen. Students running out of their classroom. They were all heading to that one house where the Healer was holding a service.
Those who got there late probably could not see the Master but could hear his words of hope.

Somewhere else in town, there is another house. That one I guess is very quiet. There’s only one man living there.  He’s crippled. There is no way he is going to get to where Jesus is. His road is quiet too, as everyone has gone to see the One they might never see again.
I can picture him saying to himself: 'If only Jesus had chosen my house to hold his meeting.  How can I let this unique opportunity slip away?'

A crippled man.  Alone.

Very much the way our world looks. There are crippled lives everywhere. People dying, alone, without any hope for this life or for the next one.

I live in a crippled country.  After being crippled for so long by one of the worst genocides in history, Cambodia is now crippled with corruption, poverty and injustice.
On the streets and in the slums of Phnom Penh, I meet crippled people every day.  

Around the world, there could now be up 200 million children living on the streets. From Dakar to Dacca, multitudes of boys and girls, crippled and alone.

Four men decide to do something. They’ll be late for the service, but no matter. Jesus could be gone when they get there, but they are going to try it anyway.

They get the crippled man on a stretcher and carry him down the streets.

We don’t know who those four men are. Neighbours? Family members? One thing we do know, they have something in their spirit. A compassion that leads them to action.

Your title and position don’t matter, the diplomas or degrees hanging on your office wall don’t mean a thing, if you’re not picking up a stretcher and bringing broken lives to Jesus.

When those 4 friends get to where Jesus is teaching, the house and the entrance to the house are packed with people.

When you decide to pick up a stretcher and serve God, you’ll find a few ‘overcrowded door entrances’. But if you’re serious about the lost, the least and the last, you’ll find ways (sometimes innovative and odd ones!) to bring them to Jesus.
You’ll even see stairs along the wall leading to the roof.

Getting a sick man on a stretcher up a flight of stairs is not an easy job.

A number of times, when working among the poor in Cambodia, I have found myself wondering, ‘How in the world are we going to get this child, this family up the stairs?’  How many times have I got stuck halfway up the stairs, wondering what to do next?

They finally make it to the top. The roof is closed. (How could it be otherwise?)
They are so determined to get their friend to Jesus, that they break the roof open.

The only way some crippled lives are ever going to meet Jesus, the only way unreached people groups are ever going to hear the Gospel, is when men and women, who are passionate for God, bypass protocol and break some roofs.

D.L Moody once said: ‘The world has yet to see what a man totally committed to God can do’.

The reason why countries like Brazil or Argentina are seeing phenomenal church growth today is very much because, back in the 50s, small groups of believers, in spite of persecution, did just what those 4 men of Capernaum did. They broke some roofs (and rules at the same time!).

The day you gave your life to Jesus, you were given a stretcher.
Sadly too many Christians have never picked it up. Some die and go to Heaven without ever using it.
God has equipped you with tools, talents and a testimony to get busy for Him.

The majority of God’s people prefer sitting in ‘a packed house’. They never do anything for Jesus outside of church.
I want to belong to the minority. Those who have decided to spend their lives carrying a stretcher.   

I just got a newsletter yesterday from an elderly couple serving with a mission to children at risk. They write: ‘Can we challenge you to consider that retirement, meaning doing little or nothing is a ‘man-made’ concept and not found in the Scriptures. Each of us can do something wherever He has placed us in the world and under whatever circumstances, until He calls us home.’

There are too many men and women of God carrying a stretcher all by themselves. You’ll find them caring for orphans in poverty-stricken Haiti; ministering to drunkards on the streets of Manchester or London; you’ll find them planting a church in a remote Romanian village or working alone translating Scripture among some forgotten tribe. They need you to go and help them carry the stretcher.

The day you get hold of the stretcher, you’ll never want to let go of it.


Timothée Paton, serving in Cambodia with ICA (www.timpaton.info)