God's Rule?

In the play “The Boys Next Door” by Tom Griffin, it presents the lives of four mentally disabled men who live in an apartment complex called the Stonehenge Villa. There, Jack Palmer supervises five group apartments of the mentally handicapped adding up to seventeen adult men all together. The four men presented in the play who Jack supervises are Arnold Wiggins, Lucien P. Smith, Norman Bulansky, and Barry Klemper. The story presents events in their lives which are funny, sad, serious and all at the same time heart touching. To me the story calls for more respect and understanding to the mentally disabled by showing that they are as everyday people who go through everyday situations and feelings just like those without disabilities. They get happy, excited, they hurt and cry, they love, they care and the thing is that they do it all with more passion than anyone without mental disabilities. Anyway, the second time Jack directly speaks to the audience he gives a statement I believe can be expanded on so much, but at the same time it seems so simple and to the point. The statement is given when he is explaining a conversation he had with his ex-wife “the other day.”

He says, “I ran into my ex-wife the other day. She’s full of ex-whatever venom. She asked me a few polite questions about my job, then she said, ‘What happens when they don’t need you anymore?’ ‘They’ll never not need me anymore,’ I told her. ‘Me or somebody else.’ ‘Who made that rule?’ she asked. ‘God,’ I said.”

When Jack mentions that it is God who made the rule that there will never not be a need for people in his work, I see it as him saying his job is an everlasting ministry that will never not be needed because there will always be those who are mentally disabled and need help. To him it is God who made that rule up simply because He is the one who created them like that and continues to create more like that. So long as there are those who need help, there will be a need for helpers.

Later in the play Jack, after telling the guys he will be leaving them says “But… really… it’ll be fine. Somebody else’ll come and take my place. Somebody’ll always be here for you guys…”

Jack understood that his job was not like others, for example some jobs may only have a certain time in which it is in a need of people and then later the demand for that business type stops because of new findings, economic crises, new technology, etc.. However in Jacks case, there will never be a short of the mentally disabled, therefore there will always be a demand for those who will help them. Even after he leaves, someone will come behind him because the guys will still need someone there for them.

The first time a reader comes across the first statement I noted, it may seem as if Jack is blaming God for making people with mental disabilities… but to me it comes out in a way that says the work he deals with involves Gods plan. His ex-wife to him was “full of ex-whatever venom,” so I feel that when she states “What happens when they don’t need you anymore?” it’s as if she is saying, “so what’s your plan after you lose this job?” in a way that she expects him to lose it. She also seems to ask, “Who made that rule?” with a smirk after he mentions they will always need him, as if she was saying “who says you can’t lose your job... What makes you special?” So when Jack says it is God who made that rule, to me he was basically saying, “Hey I‘m not special or anything, that’s just how God has things running.” Jack understood that his job was a job that would always be around open to anyone who would take it because it was a job that involved God’s plan. God designed life with a never ending line of those that would need help and Jack was just one of those who were helping.

What Jack said was rather simple but I want expand on that same idea with another source because what he said was very true: God did make this “rule,” but what does this mean? In the bible when Jesus is anointed at Bethany, a woman uses a very expensive perfume which she poured on his head (Matthew 26:6-13). The disciples were there and when they saw this the bible says they became indignant because the high priced perfume could have been sold for a lot of money and then given to the poor instead of being wasted. Jesus however said that what the woman had done to him was a beautiful thing. The interesting factor here however is what he said about the poor. He states that the poor would always be with them but they would not always have him. We understand that Jesus would not always be with them because he would be later crucified and then resurrected on the third day after. But when he spoke of the poor we see that as Jack acknowledges that the mentally disabled will always be around needing help, so Jesus also acknowledges the same thing just in different reference. The needy will always be around being in need and those who help the needy will always have the needy to help.

For us today, Jacks statement should not push us away from helping the mentally disabled or anyone else in need of help simply because there will always be those in need of help...basically saying we cant completely stop people from being menatlly handicap so why try to help some of them. Rather this statement should make us realize that because God has set up those who are in need, we also must be set up by God but to be that need. Giving and recieving is just one of the beautiful duels God has put in our world which we must all try to be a part of, if not we will only end of having a life full of taking.