Every day we get “wake up” calls from our Lord. Sometimes we hit the snooze button and just continue on a path of disconcertment. Often the Lord, by His tremendous love and grace for us, gives us a bigger, louder, clearer call. Such was the case, this past week, for one of my officers named Stacy.

I had been a chaplain to Stacy for some years and had walked with him through many personal battles. Including a terrible divorce, crashes and accidents that led to painful surgeries and conflicts within the department. Constantly I reminded Stacy that the Lord was trying to give him a wake up call. God would have him get to church, read his Bible, and list his priorities. However each time Stacy while being gracious and acknowledging my concerns continued on the path of apathy.

Just recently Stacy and I sat and talked for an hour on his future plans with his new wife (also an officer) for the years to come. Little did we know that within a week Stacy would be diagnosed with 4th stage melanoma cancer. He had been sick with stomach pains but it wasn’t something new to Stacy as he had lost a lot of weight from the divorce and never seemed to get over it. Finally after tiring from the battle he went to the doctors to locate the problem. Test after test were given with no results. One of his doctors noticed a dark spot on his upper back and asked to examine it. He was concern and ordered further testing that lead to the problem. Melanoma! A cat scan was given and revealed that the cancer has made its way into the liver and spleen. The truth was given to Stacy and Kim; 3 to 9 months to live. The last wake up call.

As their police chaplain I made my way out to the hospital as soon as I could get there. Once there I found Stacy and Kim visiting with officers from his unit. I gave them time and then asked for a moment alone with the couple. Stacy knew where I would be going, he heard it all before. I started with “this is a wake up call, maybe the last.” Followed by there is no more time to put things off, there might not be another chance, and with a new (nearly experimental) chemo starting within days, we couldn’t afford to beat around the bush.

The question was simple and to the point: “If you were to die next week or next month, where would you spend eternity?” He and his wife answered heaven we believe. So the follow up question was why do you say that? They replied as almost rehearsed, because we have been pretty good, tried to help people, and did our best. My response to them was stunning to say the least. I added that believe in themselves would take them straight to Hell. I continue with the lessons found in God’s word that teaches us that “good people” can go to Hell and bad people could go to Heaven. Referencing Mark 9 in the rich young ruler, who was good in his own eyes and believing he had passed the standard of God’s righteousness that was necessary for salvation. Compare that with the thief on the cross, who was indeed guilty of sinful acts worthy of the death sentence, only to have Jesus promise him Paradise.

Sharing with them that my favorite scripture was Galatians 2:21, where Paul states and I paraphrase, that “we would make God’s grace unless, if we think that keeping the law or commandments would bring righteousness, if that were the case Christ died for nothing!”
Stacy and Kim began to understand that there was nothing they could do on their own. Their hope and faith must be in Jesus and in Him alone for salvation. Jesus paid the price that we could not, and in doing so ransomed our souls, if we only believe and trust in Him.

By the time I left the hospital they truly understood that they could never be good enough to be saved or bad enough to be without hope, if they would trust in Christ once and for all. When I shared with them that Christ would never leave them nor forsake them, they began to understand that you only do this once because He (Jesus) would keep His promise to come into and save completely.

Well, it took many wakeup calls for Stacy to get to this point, but nonetheless he arrived and brought along with his wife. Praise God it’s not to late as long as there are “wake up” calls, but we don’t know when the last will be given. May we all pay attention!