When Jim Futral visited an adult mental facility near his chuch, he was taken
to see certain patients, who could not see, hear or talk.
When Jim Futral visited an adult mental facility near his chuch, he was taken
to see certain patients, who could not see, hear or talk.
In the building where the patients with the most extreme needs
were housed, Futral watched as a man unable to do anything else but lay
on his cot had a seizure. A nurse knelt down beside the screeching and
shaking man, took him in her arms and held him close to her, rubbing his back.
When the screeching subsided and the trembling stopped, the
nurse helped the man back down to his cot.
“Not one person in this room can see anything, say anything,
or get up and do one thing for themselves,” the facility director explained
to Futral, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention. “They only
know one thing … they know that we love them.”
The show of love was inspiring, Futral noted during a chapel
address at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
“When Jesus stepped down here out of heaven and came and sat
down beside you in your pew and to walk with you and me, he came to tell us
that he loved us,” Futral noted. “And he sent us out into a world of hate and
hurt and said, I want you to communicate with those folks out there, folks
who cant see and cant hear and cant talk and cant get
along by themselves.”
The substance of Jesus communication and his followers
communication is love, he said. Jesus communicated that love through
various means, Futral noted.
The words Jesus used were spiritual and life impacting, Futral
pointed out. “Sometimes we lose sight of the importance or the impact that will
be made on somebodys life when we simply say a word.”
For instance, when Jesus spoke to the two men shuffling on
the dusty road to Emmaus, they had not recognized him, Futral recounted. Even
so, their hearts began to burn as he spoke to them, he said.
“Do we recognize when Jesus is speaking to us?” Futral asked.
Jesus also used silence when communicating to people, Futral
said, noting how Jesus declined to answer Caiaphas.
“You dont have to come up with a response for everything,”
he said. “Sometimes your best response is no response.”
Futral illustrated the power of silence by noting how West
Point cadets are disciplined by its use. When cadets are silenced, no one is
allowed to talk to them. The effect is so dramatic that cadets often lose weight
and become disoriented, Futral said.
In a similar way, sometimes sight says it all, Futral continued.
For instance, when Jesus had been denied three times by Peter,
Futral pointed out that as the cock crowed, the Lord turned and looked upon
Peter. “Can you imagine what it must have been like?” he asked.
“I dont know about you but Ive had him look at
me. Ive seen his eyes of sorrow that cut into the heart of my rebellion,
my needs, my faith, my denial and Jesus with compassion and care simply
turns to look.”
Another style of Jesus communication was what Futral
described as scribbling, as Jesus did on the ground when presented with an adulterous
woman. As Jesus wrote, each of the accusers left one by one.
“You can use your words to write down things and make a powerful
difference in peoples lives,” Futral said.
“In every case, in every way, Jesus kept trying to get people
to understand, whether in speech or in silence or whether its in sight
or whether it is scribbling on the ground, that God wants to come and do something
wonderful in your life.” (BP)