When My Wife Was in ICU, a Church Across the Street Made It Worse

Why Authentic Compassion, Not Advertising, Is the Church’s True Calling

Image by AaronAmat on iStock

I drove out of the hospital parking lot.

I had just finished visiting my wife, leaving her in the intensive care unit.

She had just had a cancerous tumor removed.

Across the street from the hospital, there is a church. I turned toward home and passed by the church. There, standing on the sidewalk in front of the church, was a well-dressed man with slicked-back blonde hair.

The man was furiously waving a corrugated plastic sign, like the ones real estate agents put outside houses for sale.

But he wasn’t selling houses.

He was selling Jesus, or, more specifically, he was selling his version of Jesus. It was a Sunday, and judging by the foot traffic, a church service was about to begin.

And the man’s job — his service to the Lord — was to stand out the front like a pimply adolescent advertising cheap pizzas and wave a sign that was supposed to get passersby like me to show some interest in the church…. maybe even get us to come inside for a look.