There Must Be Something More

60 | Steven Came Over To Visit

The best part of being confined in a hospital was that there was no school and your best friends were always around. Often times, very early in the morning, Meredith and Grandpa Chuck came, bringing a plateful of bacon and eggs. Then Meredith would give me her usual sticky note. This time she changed it--she didn't copy the verses from the church sign anymore, she wrote verses from her Rhema (which she explained was God's Word in her devotional). She'd tell me how God spoke to her through these verses, and then sometimes she wouldn't. She said it was between her and God. And I respected that. I just wished I had something between me and God too--I sure had a lot to ask Him.

My Mom and Dad came by at night to ask me if I was feeling okay or if I needed anything. I always told them their presence alone was what I needed. They just smiled and told me they loved me.

Whenever Meredith and Samuel came by, I would grab the opportunity to ask about Liam. Meredith would not say anything. Samuel would often say Liam was fine, but his eyes didn't look certain. I prayed I was reading too much and they weren't masking something bad.

During these times I felt so far away from God. I would pray, yes, but after it I felt like God wasn't listening, or He couldn't hear my prayers. Meredith would often tell me He does, but I wasn't convinced. I couldn't feel Him. It wasn't like the first time I read a verse from Meredith's sticky note and I actually could feel the peace. But this time I felt empty. I knew God would never leave me, but maybe I had left Him. And now I was far away, and as much as I wanted to run back, I didn't know how.

And then Steven came over to visit.

"Charlie," he said. He wore a striped blue polo shirt and shorts. He came in with a big smile. Behind him was Trey and Samuel, my brothers in our cell group.

"Hey, Steven," I said, sitting up. The guy sat on the chair on my right and rested an elbow on the metal of my bed. 

"How long have you been here?" He asked.

"Four days," I said. I writhed in my bed, trying to get a good position, but I was feeling awkward. I decided to ignore it and face Steven. 

"I heard from Meredith that this happened after your baseball practice with this new friend of yours... Liam?" 

I nodded. I didn't say anything more. What was there to say?

"Are we going to have our Lesson Three right now?" I asked.

"No. As much as I want to, it's still Wednesday, we gotta wait for Saturday where we're all complete," he said. He sat back so casually I felt like doing the same. So I did.

"You didn't get to go to church on Sunday, huh?" he said after a few moments of silence. He laced his fingers together on his chest and turned to me. "I know it seems like I'm always far away... but Charlie, you can always tell me if there is anything wrong. I'm not your equipper for no reason. I'm..." he squeezed my arm. "I'm here for you."

I nodded. I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. I let the awkwardness do its thing.

"And," Grandpa Chuck said, breaking the silence. "Pastor James talked about something interesting last Sunday's service."

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows in intrigue. "What was it about?"

"He called it Hell's Best Kept Secret."

"Why is that?"

Trey rubbed his hands together in excitement. "Oooh, Grandpa Chuck's going to preach it." He turned to me. "Are you sitting down?"

I looked down myself lying down the hospital bed. I looked at him in disbelief, shaking my head.

Grandpa Chuck leaned closer to me. "Pastor James started it like this.

"In 1991, in the first year of the decade of harvest, a major denomination in the U.S. was able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ. That is, in one year, this major denomination of 11,500 churches was able to obtain 294,000 decisions for Christ. Unfortunately, they could only find 14,000 in fellowship, which means they couldn’t account for 280,000 of their decisions, and this is normal, modern evangelical results, and something Ray Comfort, an evangelist, discovered way back in the late seventies; it greatly concerned him.

"Ray then began to study the book of Romans intently and, specifically, the gospel proclamation of men like Spurgeon, Wesley, Moody, Finney, Whitfield, Luther, and others that God used down through the ages, and he found they used a principle which is almost entirely neglected by modern evangelical methods. He began teaching that principle; he was eventually invited to base their ministry in southern California, the city of Bellflower, specifically to bring this teaching to the church of the U.S.

"Things were quiet for the first three years, until he received a call from Bill Gothard, who had seen the teaching on video. Bill flew him to San Jose in northern California; he shared it with a thousand pastors. Then in 1992 Bill screened that video to 30,000 pastors. The same year David Wilkerson called from New York. He called from his car.

"He had been listening to the teaching in his car and called Ray on his car phone. Immediately, he flew Ray 3,000 miles from L.A. to New York to share the one-hour teaching with his church; he considered it to be that important. And recently Ray heard of a pastor who had listened to the audio tape 250 times.

"I’d be happy if you’d listen just once to this teaching which is called “Hell’s Best Kept Secret."