Talk Stigma

Today is all about finding a purpose. Today is thinking about helpless people. That's what I'm going to be talking about. And I'm going to tell you a story that will relate to all of these things. But first, I want to introduce myself. My name is Pastor Seth Perry and I'm in recovery from addiction. I also live well with bipolar disorder. I have a diagnosis of bipolar type one. Hello, Jules. Welcome to the Live Stream where we are talking about being helpless, but also counteracting helplessness with finding a purpose.

And I'm glad that you're all here because I have a really great story to share with you all. But maybe first you could send me something about you. When was a time that you found your purpose? When was a time that you felt helpless? When was the time that you were able to counteract helplessness with finding a purpose, finding something to do, finding a new direction in life, finding a task or something to occupy yourself and feeling useful in the moment? Because that's what I'm going to be talking about.

And if you drop a comment, I certainly just stop what I'm talking about and I will, I will say, hey, this is what you said. So, Shannon, Happy Sunday, Becky. Welcome, Jules. And also I'd like to say who else is here today? Who else? I think I saw Luke. Hello, Luke. So welcome. Oh, great. Shannon. Advocating for others makes me feel useful and knowing a lot about your story and everything you do with people who are on the spectrum, I certainly can understand that. So I'll hop into my story and I'll welcome comments all the way through.

I'm going to start by talking about this whole week. Many people felt helpless. Okay. It was a tragic week. And I had to preach today, giving people hope about what was happening in California. And today at church, you know, we were talking about how we can have a financial response for the people there. And the news has just been horrific. Thinking about 180,000 people that have been displaced in Los Angeles and we see people on the news that are frantic and helpless. So I went through my week really thinking about this and so I talked a little bit about it in my sermon, but I didn't have an ending to my sermon.

And I was very frustrated. And that's when I got a call and I had to go to the hospital. I was so, so, so, so frustrated. When I got to the hospital, I didn't have an ending in my sermon. But another thing happened was I go and try to get out of the parking garage at Regions Hospital and I couldn't find the door. And it seemed like a bunch of doors that were normally open were locked. So I ended up in the belly of the hospital. I ended up in the basement. And I'm wandering around with a room number in my hand.

I am nowhere near the front desk. I don't even know where I am. And I grab nurse and I say, oh, do you know where this is? And she's struggling to find the words to tell me where it is. And she's like, I don't really know. And then a voice from behind me says, are you looking to get to that room? Because I can take you there. Really calm voice. And I turned around, and there was this man, and he was wearing a black suit, he had a gray beard, and he was wearing a yarmulke, you know, the Jewish head garment, the little cap that you put on that has no brim.

And I said, well, yeah, I am. I'll show you. I'll take you to the room. And I was like, okay. Are you visiting someone? He goes, well, no, no, but don't tell anyone about my little shortcut. So he had a shortcut that he was going to take me there. He took me up in the elevator. And I said, so, what are you doing here today? He's like, I'm a doctor. So he was a doctor. I had no idea. And I just assumed maybe he was a rabbi visiting someone. That's why I asked, are you visiting someone? Next thing I know, he's taking me through the hallway, and the nurses are looking up at him and nodding with respect.

And, you know, the janitors are like, oh, nodding at him. The doctors are nodding at him with respect. And he goes, I also help happen to be the chief of medicine here at Regions. And I was like, whoa, why is this guy going out of his way to help me? And so he's helping me along, and he said, well, it's all, we're almost there. We're going to take you to the nurse's desk there. And so what I said to him is, what you're doing right now is a mitzvah. And he looked at me and he goes, wow, how would you know such a thing?

It is a mitzvah. And a mitzvah in, you know, to the Jewish culture, to Jewish religion, that is a good deed. This man went out of his way to do a good deed for me, which was amazing. I thought it was just absolutely great. And he goes. He goes, because you know what a mitzvah is, I'm going to take you directly to the door of the person you want to see. And he did just that. He took me there. Now, I want to tell you, here's the important part. Why did he do this? Why did he go out of his way? It was Friday night at 5:30pm the sun was going down and the Sabbath was beginning for this Jewish man, that was the amazing part.

Instead of him beginning his, you know, his Shabbat ritual, right, he should have been lighting a candle and gathering with his family. Instead, he took some random guy that was frustrated and grumpy in the hall, and he took him where he needed to go. This guy's the chief of medicine. Like, what is. What. What does he have to do? You know, he could have just kept walking or whatever. He spent 10 minutes to go out of his way to get me to where I needed to go, and that's where I'm grateful. So I was helpless.

I had no idea where I was going. And he gave me a purpose. And that is my point today, right? That we can find other people, we can help other people, and we can find that purpose through interacting with other people. And it doesn't matter if we are of different faiths. It doesn't matter if we grew up in different cultures. It doesn't matter even if one person is atheist and the other person is a spiritual person. It doesn't matter. Any of that stuff, throw it all away, all the labels, throw them away.

Because we're here on this earth to help other people. We're here on this earth to, you know, have our ears open just like this doctor did. He had his ears open and he was like, someone needs help over there. I'm going to help him for some reason. And he said, God works in mysterious ways. And absolutely God does. Absolutely. So that's my message for you today. In the shadow of a major tragedy here in the United States and also after, you know, a winter and fall with plenty of tragedy here in the United States, people are dealing with a lot of stuff.

And you might be writing off 20, 25, but don't, because look to the helpers. Be one of the helpers or also be okay with being helped for, you know, once in a while. Right? That's not bad. So I'll just say a few things here. We've got Speak Wonder saying, happy Sunday and go Broncos. All right, well, good luck to the Broncos. Shannon says loves this story. Speak Wonder gives me a smile and says, toss out all of the labels. And certainly, certainly we should have a wonderful Sunday, have a wonderful beginning of your week, be reminded.