The Helpless Son
Rick Hoyt is disabled. Strangled by his own umbilical cord at birth, it rendered him brain damaged and unable to control his limbs.
The doctors told his parents he would be a vegetable the rest of his life. At nine months old, they were encouraged to put him into an institution. But they wouldn’t go for that. They believed he had a mind.
At age 11, they took their son to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was a way to help him communicate. They rigged him to a computer where he could control a cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head. He was able to communicate. A big hockey fan living in the New England area, his first words were “Go Bruins!”
When a high school classmate of his was paralyzed in an accident, the school organized a charity run.
“Dad, I want to do that,” Rick pecked out on the computer.
His father was a self-described porker who had never run more than a mile. How would he push his son five miles? But he did, and that charity run changed his life.
Rick typed, “Dad, when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”
Obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could, he started training hard with his son. They ran races constantly together, eventually marathons. He even qualified for the Boston marathon (with no special allowance being made for a man pushing a wheelchair).
His friends encouraged him to try a triathlon with Rick. He had never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six. How would he haul his 110-pound kid through such a demanding race? He did.
In all, Rick and his father have completed over 1000 races, including six Ironman competitions (that means pushing 26.2 miles in a wheelchair, towing 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming, and then pedaling 112 miles on the handlebars). In 1992 they biked and ran across the U.S., completing the full 3737 miles in 45 days.
Why would a father do this for his son? Rick’s father says it’s all so he can see that big smile on his son’s face.
Can you see yourself in this story? We have a lot in common with Rick. We are the helpless sons. We are handicapped because of sin. We cannot do anything for ourselves. Jesus has to carry us. He has “borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). He not only bore our sins in his body (1 Peter 2:24), but he also took on our sins and became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
And why did Jesus do this for us? Why would he pick us up and carry us in his arms when we couldn’t do anything for him in return? He did it to put a smile on our face!
Rick lives in his own apartment, works in Boston, and loves to spend time with his dad. They make motivational speeches together around the country, and still compete in races together.
Rick can take his father out to dinner and buy his father things to show his appreciation for him, but the one thing he would like to give his father, money could never buy.
“The thing I’d most like is that my Dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”
Of course, that’s something he can never do. Rick will never be able to do that for his dad.
However, we can do for Jesus what Rick can’t do.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” Matthew 25:34-40
