They’re Gonna Need a New Roof

When a doorway is blocked, tear open the roof!

On New Year’s Eve a few years ago, my wife and I planned a quiet dinner and an early bedtime. She was working and I was with a client when my phone rang.

“Your wife slipped and fell in the lobby of the office. She’s with paramedics now and they are taking her to the hospital. She’s in a lot of pain. Her knee may be broken.”

I don’t recall my reply, but I remember rushing to my car to speed to the hospital. I knew one thing for sure. If someone said my wife was in a lot of pain, it was serious. She absorbs pain without a squeak or a wince. I’ve seen her hurt too many times, and I’ve learned not to evaluate the seriousness of her injury by her response to pain.

I arrived at the hospital, checked in and asked the attendant to notify me when the ambulance arrived. Thirty minutes passed. Then 60. I went to the desk and the lady continued to tell me that she had no record of my wife’s arrival.

“She was brought here by an ambulance!”  I’m sure I was sweet and gentle with my plea. She dismissed me as before,

“Take a seat over there. I’ll call you when she arrives.”

Just after I huffed and puffed my way into a metal chair with a well-worn seat pad, my friend rushed through a slow-sliding door.

He greeted me with his typical “Wassup?”

“I can’t find my wife. I think I’m in time-out. It’s been an hour, and they say she’s not here.”

He went to the desk and interrogated the compassionless lady. He came back toward me and said, “I’m going to look for her. She must be here somewhere.”

Some people think new thoughts. They don’t simply “take a seat.”  Rules are suggestions.

I watched as he smashed through a wooden door with an easy-to-read sign positioned at his eye level, “DO NOT ENTER.”

He didn’t even stutter step. I waited for an alarm to sound and police to surround the intruder. Nothing happened.

My friend returned in less than two minutes.

“Anette is in a hallway waiting for an ER bay to open. She’s jacked-up on morphine and said, ‘Date night is off.'”

“They came to Him bringing one sick with paralysis, who was carried by four men. When they could not come near Him due to the crowding, they uncovered the roof where He was. When they had broken it open, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay” (Mark 2:3-4).

Love leaders remove obstacles for their teams. Blockers thrive in the prevention of progress. They make lists of why a project won’t work.

Leaders specialize in roof removal.

My wife’s knee was broken in six places. She had surgery on New Year’s Day. A few months later, she endured knee replacement surgery. She didn’t wince.

My friend is somewhere today, knocking down doors. The waiting room attendant is still asking people to take a seat.