Wayne Cordeiro, in his book “Jesus: Pure and Simple”, talks about Doug Nicols, who was a missionary in India in 1967 when he contracted tuberculosis. As a result, he was committed to a Sanitarium, which is a medical facility for long term illnesses, and he was there several months to recover. Doug found himself in a lonely, confusing, and troubled place. He did not know the language of the other patients, but he wanted to share the Good News of Jesus with them. All Doug had in the Sanitarium were a few gospel tracts in their language, Parsee. He tried to pass them out, but nobody wanted them. Then one night, Doug woke up at 2:00 AM, coughing so violently that he could not catch his breath. During this coughing fit, Doug noticed a little old shrunken man across the aisle trying to get out of bed. He was so weak he could not stand up. He began to whimper. He tried again, but to no avail. In the morning Doug realized that the man had been trying to get up to use the bathroom. The stench in the ward was terrible. The other patients were angry at the old man for not being able to contain himself. The nurse cleaned up the mess and then slapped the man. The next night, again Doug saw the old man trying to get out of bed, but this time Doug got out of bed, picked up the old man, and carried him to the toilet which was just a hole in the floor and then brought him back to his bed. The old man kissed Doug on the cheek and promptly went to sleep.
Early the next morning, Doug awoke to a steaming cup of tea beside his bed. Another patient had kindly made it for him. The patient motioned that he wanted one of those gospel tracts. The next two days, one after another patient asked, “Could I have one of those tracts too?” In his affliction, Doug cared for others in their affliction, and it had a profound impact! People began to see that his religion was real, and they wanted it too! Do people know that your religion is real? Think of the impact you could have if you just put God’s Word into practice like Doug did! God’s Word is best done when we put it into practice and action and do it.