Collegiate Conference 1983-02 Life Changing Truths — William MacDonald

OK, let's have a word of prayer before we look to God's Word. Father, we thank you for these hours that we've spent together at Koinonia, this conference, and we just come now as we reach the close and pray that you will command a double portion of your blessings upon this time and upon the ministry of your Word.

We can echo the sentiments of the sun and say a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of perdition. Father, we just thank you for these sanctified holy moments, this little anti-room of heaven.

We pray that the fragrance of the time might go with us and that our lives will be changed, each one of us. We ask in Jesus' name. First of all, let's review what we went over last time. Last night when we were here, we talked about some great life-changing truths, and this afternoon we spoke about three ways in which we can respond to those truths.

Choosing Total Commitment to Jesus Christ

First of all, we can do our own thing, plan our own life, live selfishly, live for money, live for material things, make a business or a profession that's a simple thing in our life, go in for fame and honor, join the cult of the body beautiful, live for pleasure, travel, entertainment, live for marriage and family.

And secondly, we also said that we could go with the flow, that we could just drift aimlessly through life, take whatever comes, but be more like a jellyfish on a sea of time. Tonight we want to take up the third option, and that is a life of total commitment to Jesus Christ.

And our golden text is Romans, chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The only thing that really makes sense in life is giving your life to the Lord Jesus so that he can do whatever he wants with it.

Choosing his will instead of our own. Choosing his will instead of our own. It means losing your life for his sake and the gospel. It's interesting to me that there's such an emphasis in the evangelical world today on self-esteem, self-image, loving yourself.

Do you know that Jesus taught the very opposite? He didn't teach to hug your life. He taught to lose your life for his sake and his mind it as a life eternal. We get things all the time in life that we really do.

A poet said, swing your soul and body down for God to plow them under. Commitment means giving Christ the devotion of your heart and the love of your soul. It's not one thing to stand here tonight and talk about it, it's quite another thing to do it.

I know something of that conflict that goes on in the human soul when we face this tremendous issue. There are some lovely examples of commitment to the Old Testament. I think of David's men when they came to him and they said, Thine we are, O David, and on thy side thou son of Jesse.

I like that, don't you? Thine we are, O David, and on thy side, O son of Jesse. We're taking our stand with you. We belong to you. You do with us what you think of. I'll tell you, David had some devoted men.

Ruth's Declaration of Loyal Commitment

And then I think of the book of Ruth, how Naomi suggested to Ruth, why don't you come back with me to Bethlehem? You're a mole that can't stay here with your own people. And do you remember what Ruth said?

One of the most noble statements of commitment in all the Old Testament scriptures. She said, it is free me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For where thou goest, I will go. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge.

Thy people shall be my people, thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die. And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more often with us, that death part me with thee, and it praises me with thee.

That's what I would like the attitude of my soul to the Lord Jesus Christ to be. It is free me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. Where thou goest, I'll go. Where thou lodgest, my people shall be my people, thy God my God.

Where thou diest, I will die. That's what we say in believer's baptism, isn't it? Where thou diest, I will die. And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more often with us, that death part me with thee.

That's commitment. Have you and I ever really said that to the Lord Jesus? Are we still holding on to our lives? Are we still hugging our lives for selfish purposes? I thought I'd look at the Dear Apostle Paul in Philippians 3, verses 7 -9.

Paul's Loss of All Things for Christ

Sorry if there's ever a man sold out to the Lord Jesus. It was Paul, wasn't it? Philippians 3, verse 7, He had just listed all the things that a man could glory in according to the flesh, and he just wrote a few texts for us.

He said, What things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ, yea, dealt with, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse.

But I made a great profit and loss statement, I think. All the things that he could glory in, I say, as a man in the flesh, and he just text them all out. He said, Christ to thee and I count these things but refuse.

Dear friend, it is no great sacrifice to give up refuse. I could take you and give you some illustrations of commitment that come close to the home. Not too many years ago, well, quite a few now, there was a student at Woody Bible Institute, her name was Denise Scott.

God was having healing in her soul. But you know, when God is grappling with your soul about the subject we're facing tonight, you really know it. I call it the barbecue process. I know when God is barbecuing me.

It's good. Don't run from it. And Denise Scott was grappling with this whole thing up in her dormitory room, and finally she sat down and she wrote on a flyleaf of her Bible, Lord, I give up my own purposes and plans, all my own desires, hopes, and ambitions, and accept thy will for my life.

I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to thee, to be thine forever. It sounds like Luke's goodness. It was steady. I hand over to thy keeping all of my friendships, my love. All the people whom I love are to take second place in my heart.

Fill me and fill me with thy Holy Spirit. Work out thy whole will in my life at any cost, for to me the living Christ who died is gained.". Denise Scott later married a young Christian brother named John Stamm, and they went out to China.

They had one child, and they sealed their testimony for their blood in China. They died as martyrs in China. If you read the story, the story is a book called The Triumph of John and Betty Stamm, and this verse recurs over and over again in her life, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

I want to tell you something. If you could talk to Betty Scott Stamm in heaven today, and say, What do you think about it now, Betty? Would you go back over that commitment she wrote in your Bible? She said, I wouldn't go into it any other way.

No reserve, no retreat, no regret. I think of William Borden. Borden belonged to a famous Borden Dairy Company. He went to Yale years ago. Believe it or not, there was a revival at Yale. And this great battle went on in his life, too.

You know, the heir of a great fortune. I guess God comes in and takes hold of his life there at Yale University. And he wrote in his Bible, Lord Jesus, I take my hands off as far as my life is concerned.

I put thee on the throne in my heart. Change, cleanse, use me as thou shalt choose. I take the full power of thy Holy Spirit. I thank thee. Amen. And Borden of Yale, I don't know if any of you have read the book, there's a book called Borden of Yale, written by Mrs. Howard Taylor.

And more people have gone to the Mission Theater to discover that book than have read Borden. It's good to be a pundit. There's a great pain in a Christian's life when he or she can write badly enough in the flyings of the Bible and read it from their hearts.

One of the great crises of life. Spurgeon, I don't know many men that have had the impact upon the Church of Jesus Christ that Charles Haddon Spurgeon had. What was the secret of it? I was thinking of that when I attended the workshop here this afternoon.

Spurgeon's Wholehearted Consecration

He said, in that day, when I surrendered myself to my Savior, I gave him my body, my soul, my spirit. I gave him all. All I had and all I shall have, but time is for eternity. I gave him all my talents, my powers, my faculty, my eyes, my ears, my limbs, my emotions, my judgment, my whole manhood, and all that could come of it.

Years later, A .T. Pearson wrote of him, All the mind he had, and all the chance God gave him, he made the most. Maybe that accounts for the fact that some of us just make no sense of why a man like Spurgeon has such an impact.

I think there's something intensely noble to see young men and young women with talent, with gifts, men and women who could really go ahead in the world. I think it's just wonderfully fitting to see them coming and laying it all down at the feet of the Lord Jesus.

It just seems so appropriate to me. Not to see people who have been failures in other walks of life, and then think they'll thrive at the service of the Lord. They haven't made it otherwise, and so now they're going to serve the Lord.

It's great to see people with the best in all that I have, Lord Jesus. Somebody said, you know, there's a place for Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, for that type of scholarship. But the place is not over the head of Jesus, where they place that group of Christians on the cross.

The place is at his feet. And it's really wonderful when we can take our prowess, our education, our degrees that we worked so hard for, and just lay them at his future feet. Let him sanctify them and use them for his glory.

Why Give Your Life to Christ?

Let me think with you tonight about why. Why should I do this? Why should I commit my life to the Lord? Number one, if Jesus Christ died for me, the least I could do is live for him. Isn't that what it says in Romans 12, 1 and 2?

It speaks about our reasonable purpose. Our reason is really the most reasonable thing in the whole world. For me, to surrender my life to the Lord Jesus is the most sane, logical, rational, reasonable thing that I could possibly do.

For me, to cling to my life and live it the way I want to live it is anathema form. As we've said before, if he is Lord, then he has a right to all, and we decide that he is Lord. R. A. Laidlaw said something that really struck me.

He said, it's interesting, that we can come to Christ, get this out, we can come to Christ and we can trust the eternal salvation of our souls to him. And I would hope that most of us in the room have done that.

We come to Christ, and we believe that he died for us in the cross at Calvary, we receive him as our Lord and Savior, and we trust him to save us for all eternity, right? Why can't we trust him to manage our lives down here?

There seems to be a lack of transparency in my life. When I come to him and receive the gift of eternal life from him, and I don't dare to let him control my life, even. One of the reasons I don't dare let him control my life is that I'm afraid I wouldn't like what he wants me to do.

But, notice what it says in Romans 12, that he may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And you know, I'd just like to stand here tonight before you, dear young people, and testify to the fact that the will of God is good and acceptable.

I want to testify to the fact that the man who turns over his life to Christ makes no mistake. And God wants only the very best for you. And you might think you know something better. God is the one who knows what's best.

Years ago, there was a titled lady in Ireland, in the south of Ireland, her name was Lady Powerscourt. She was a woman of God, and she said that it seems an insult to that love which gave all for us to say that we love, and yet hold back part of our lives to Him.

It seems an insult. Let me read it exactly the way she said it. It seems an insult to that love which gave all for us to say we love, and yet stop to calculate about giving all to Him, when our all is but too mighty.

His all was Heaven, Earth, Eternity, Himself. She said, better not to love Him. Better to be cold. You know, there's a lot of truth to that. We just think of the enormity of the passion of Christ and His work for us on the cross of Calvary, and you can't love Him with a hissing hot love.

It'd be better not to love Him at all. Better to be cold than to be loose. Why should I commit my life to the Lord? Well, it's the only wise choice when we realize an eno option that we don't know anything about.

Why, you might think that the most wonderful thing for your life would be to be the vice president in charge of paperclips at the Amalgamated Futility Company. And you know, all the time you think that, and you're gunning for a dead hole.

Some of you burn the vision of the Christ upon the cross, you know. And He has something glorious in mind for you. Some of you don't even know about that. I won't tell you. So you kind of make that commitment to Him, and even then He won't tell you all at once for you.

It's kind of an exploding revelation of grandeur. Why should I commit my life to save my life from being wrecked and wasted? That's what I should do. In the late 1970s, the United States Navy developed an automated system for landing hyperplanes on aircraft carriers by the use of computers.

And this is the way it works. They line up the plane with the aircraft carrier, and the pilot has to take his hand off the control and just sit there as his plane knows for the aircraft carrier, lurching and shuddering as the computer adjusts for the movement of the aircraft carrier.

You know, the aircraft carrier might be going this way, it might be going this way, and the computer is adjusting so that the plane is in sync, that's Y-N-C, in sync with the movement of the carrier.

You know, the crucial point of that story is the pilot gets hands on. Do you want your life to land safely? Take your hands off the control. Let the Lord Jesus bring your life in, and He'll do that. Why a commitment?

Trusting Christ with Every Area of Life

We had it last night, the love of Christ. Because we don't judge, and if one dies for all, then we're all dead. If he died for all, then he should live to die, and he should live unto himself, and then he who dies for them and rose again.

Unfortunately, our commitment to the Lord Jesus is oftentimes inconclusive. Unfortunately, we're like Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts, you know. They sold a piece of property and pretended to give it all to the Lord.

They hold that part of it. They sing, all to Jesus I surrender, all to him I am free to give, and we're touching on the close end. It's a good thing God doesn't strike every Christian dead who makes an incomplete consecration.

Every once in a while, God speaks of in the history of mankind to show his extreme displeasure with certain things. He doesn't do it every time, fortunately. And he did it then in the book of Acts, with power in the church.

You couldn't do things like that and get away with it. And God showed what he thought about incomplete, about pretending to give a part, to give all and hold back a part. Remember when Peter said, not so, Lord.

That's a contradiction. Cross out the no, or cross out the Lord. Not me, Lord. Not now, Lord. The Lord Jesus told about that young man who was filled with enthusiasm. He wanted to be a disciple of Christ, and he said, suffer me first to go and bury my fault.

The key words there are, that's what hinders our surrender to the Lord Jesus. Suffer me first to go and bury my fault. Mine first, some first, then yours. Jesus said, let the dead bury their dead, but go down and preach to demons, God.

In other words, there are things that unsaved people can do just as well as saved people. Don't spend your life doing what an unsaved person could have done just as well. Be indispensable. It's a game of life.

Another one says, let me first go, bid them farewell, which are at home, which are at my house. And there you have it again. Let me first go, bid them farewell. The ego trip. Makes me think of what a person said this first month.

He said, I have to live, don't I? The person said, I don't grant that. We have to obey God. So that's right. When did he say we have to live? Our responsibility is to obey God, and let him take care of the life.

And that's what we say. We say, Lord, anywhere, don't send me to the dishes yet. Right? We say, Lord, I want to do anything you want me to do, but I've got to get married first. That's not consecration.

That's not commitment. You start putting those butts in, and you might as well forget the rest. That's real. That's real. I've got to get married. I tell you, I really think we're, I think it's God's will for most people to be married.

You can only leave it with the Lord. When you start bargaining with God like that, you're asking yourself, you're not getting married. At least you never have. Really. I mean, you know, I really mean it.

Not speaking just marriage. I come from a long line of married people. We say, Lord, Lord, I want to commit my life to you, but for any time, but first let me finish my career, and then I'll retire, and you do the rest of my life, eh?

Is that right? That's the thing. Sure, you become financially independent, and you give the Lord the tag end of a wasted career. I want to tell you something tonight, he doesn't want it. He doesn't want it.

He wants you in the prime of life. If you like it, if you were the Lord, and people said that to you, I'm going to give the best years of my life to the corporation, and I'll give you what's left over.

Lord, in the fullness of my might, I would for thee be strong, while runneth o 'er each dear delight of thee, to thrive my song. It's Fleming's favorite hymn, on the martyrs of Ecuador. Why do we make this hymn complete consecration?

Overcoming Fear and Incomplete Consecration

Well, one of the reasons is the fear of the unknown. I don't have to empathize with people. I oftentimes have the fear of the unknown. It's a kind of naturalism. You're trying to see ahead, and it's hard to put down your steps.

Fear of the loss of security. That's very wrong. And very deceptive, too, because people think today that if they just have bank accounts and stocks and bonds, that they have security. And we're brainwashed.

We talk about real estate as if it were real. We talk about security as if they were secure. The only security we have in life is God. I chuckle. I chuckle. In recent years, you know, when we were going through that terrible inflation, and all of a sudden, all the analysts were saying, gold was the thing.

Buy gold. Everybody was like a bunch of robots, and thought they'd buy gold. And what happened? The bottom dropped out of the gold market. And they said, silver is the way to go. Everybody buys silver.

Silver. Diamonds. Diamonds for investment. Not diamonds. They're wearing a hint. Diamonds for investment. The bottom dropped out of the diamond market. It's all the same. And it doesn't cost anything in this world.

You know, it's wonderful to have the Lord. To be able to say, my God, because by all your means, according to his riches in glory by Christ. It's according to his riches in glory. It's written. Incomplete commitment.

Incomplete, because we put too much. I'll never forget one time at Emmaus Bible School when I was there. George Verwell was visiting us, and he was living up in the dormitory. And one time he was going down the hallway in the dormitory, and there were two fellas in a room, and the door was ajar.

And these two fellas were underneath, praying. I remember it was agonizing before the Lord. I can picture it right now. I remember his name. He was saying, Lord, I can't. You know I can't. They're praying.

George was just walking by the door. And typical of George Verwell. He started to head in the door. He was just, what's the matter? He was afraid of a pastor. When I talk to the Lord like that, I'm just afraid of the Lord.

When I hold myself back from the Lord, I'm holding myself back from His best. Where the rubber hits the road, what are we going to do? The crisis of commitment. The crisis of commitment. I want to make this very, very practical tonight.

There has to be an initial act. There has to be a first time in your life when you get down before the Lord. When I do. When I get down before the Lord, and it's eternal in my life. Before I do that, however, I think I should learn to say this.

I don't know what's best in my life. I wonder if we're all at that point tonight. Can you honestly say before the Lord tonight, I don't know what. Jeremiah said that. I like it. He said, Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in you.

It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. And I tell you when he said that, he said, I'm over it. Let me say it again. Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in you. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

And that means that man just doesn't have the knowledge to know what's best for him. I hope we're all there tonight. Then, we take this initial act. And we get down on our knees and say, Lord Jesus, you brought me to this place in life.

And tonight, I do. I want to turn the reins over to you. I want you to take control of my life. Anywhere. Anything. Anytime. Let it be yours. There was a story told years ago of a meeting in Africa. And those dear African people, they didn't have money to give to the Lord.

And so the time had come for them to give their offspring to the Lord. And one African would go up and put a dozen of eggs on the table. And the next one would go up and there'd be a hen tied by its legs.

And he'd lay that flickering hen on the table. And they went up with vegetables. And they went up with, they didn't have money. So they gave what they had to the Lord. And then one old African went up and revealed himself.

That's it. He gave himself. Praise God. Somebody said, give him all there is of you. No half measures. No broken pieces. No reservations. No keeping back part of the gift. And no pretending that part is the whole.

There's an impressive unity and simplicity about the life that undistractedly loves and serves God with a whole heart. But you know, even that initial act isn't enough. You can crawl up on the table today, and the rest of the thing will be crawling up.

You can put yourself in that casket, dead to the world. And you look up the next day and you see the toes crawling out the end of the casket. That's right, that's the way we are. Who's the dead? And so in addition to the initial act, there has to be a continual process.

Daily Renewal and Dependence on the Holy Spirit

And that means that every day in my life, I have to rededicate myself to the Lord. I'd like to suggest that to you. In your morning prayer, say, Lord Jesus, I rededicate myself to you again today. I turn my life over to you for this next 24-hour period.

You dance as I will too. You never get away from that through all of life. Renew the surrender day by day. A poet has put it very nicely. I think you'll like this. I want my part so clear to self that my dear Lord may come and set up his own furnishings and make my part his home.

And since I know what this requires, each morning while it's still, I slip into that secret room and leave with him my will. He always takes it graciously, presenting me with his. I raise in to meet the day in any task there is.

And this is how my Lord controls my interest, my ills, because we meet at the break of day for an exchange of wills. We meet every morning, and we turn our will over to the Lord, and he takes his will for that next 24-hour period.

Very practical, isn't it? We meet at break of day for an exchange of wills. In one of Harold Wilder's books, he wrote something that was very helpful to me. I hope I can explain it to you. The gist of it is this, that we come to the Lord in the morning, and we rededicate ourselves to him for that next period of time, and then we take whatever comes in the day as being part of his will for our lives.

That makes a tremendous difference in life if I can do that. For instance, I'm driving along the freeway, and I have a flat tire. Oh! Dedicated my life to the Lord this morning, and here I am with a flat tire and five acres.

The other way of looking at it is, that didn't happen by chance. You can pray and see God work. I think Donna will remember this when Bob was still with us one day. We were just doing that very thing.

We were going along 580. Donna and Rob and myself, we were going out to a Chinese restaurant in Haverly. And my car started to act up, because there's nothing to do. And I said to Rob, I'm losing power.

He said, forget about it. And I said, I started losing power, and pretty soon it died. I'm toasting along. And I just had enough left to pull up onto the, a little triangle between the main freeway and the main exit.

So that was gracious of the Lord. I could have just stopped right in the middle of the freeway, but I wasn't. I was off from the flow of traffic. And when I chose to be forward and narrowly, I would get out and stick my head under the hood.

Knowing not what to look for. But after sixty-five years, you learn a few lessons. So we got our heads in the mud. I got out of the car and stood by the car. Rob and Donna were in the car. I stood by the car and looked as helpless as possible.

Within a minute, within a minute, a car had stopped. A very young black car had stopped. He said, can I help you? I said, I really could. If you take this couple from the car and tell them where to take them, it's a hazy.

Because Don Robertson was waiting for us there, they could contact him, visit him. They got into the car with him, for him to take them off. And he put his hand behind them up and he said, I'm a Christian.

I like it. I hadn't even told him I was. So Rob and Donna left and went on into Haywood with him. And I went back to the car and stood helplessly again. Another car, within a minute, another car drove up.

And I had my feet, all feet bare, thank you. There's nothing you can do to help. I'm pretty sure it's helpful to you. I looked into the car, it was my landlord. He doesn't even live near there. But I find him standing here.

I suppose I stopped to see if I could help. I thanked him very much and he went on his way. I went back to the car and stood by the car. And pretty soon, a car drives along the exit and pulls up on the shoulder of the exit.

And the two girls that were in there are here tonight. Nancy Wasserman and Barbara Haney. They had seen me going the other way and Nancy said, oh, that poor man. That was pretty hard. I was talking to them and a CHP drove up right behind me.

And he was a bit irate at first. He thought I was just visiting by the car. I finally persuaded him that that Chevrolet was dead. And he said, well, you better get it towed. Well, he knows too much about the word towed up.

And Don Robertson came and brought the Don and the dear black fellow, the dear black brother. They all came and they pulled right up and Don jumped out. One, two, three. That was the fifth car. I'm curious, does it really happen like this?

Don jumped out and he heard that officer use the word towed. And he said, can't you push him to the opposite? And the officer said, you're in a very dangerous position. And Don said, I know, but you have those rubber bumpers on the front of the car that hits you.

And he said, they're very respectful of that. And it worked. And he pushed us off the freeway and we were able to get back. We got off right in front of him and he picked up the car that day. You know, all it was was that the point hadn't been secured in.

You know, I think it was all on the board. I really do. I'm glad I had committed that day to the Lord and it's not going to work. And a wonderful thing about that. I mean, I said to Rob, I said, I'm sorry that you're not feeling well.

I had to teach it. Don't be sorry. He said, I think it's wonderful to see the Lord more often. And it is, too. If you commit to your life to the Lord, your communion with him, and then you accept what comes as part of his will, no interruptions, no accidents, no tragedies.

This is the way Harold Wiley said it. As you leave the whole burden of your sins and rest upon the finished work of Christ, so leave the whole burden of your life and service and rest upon the present in working of the Holy Spirit.

Commit your life and then believe that the Holy Spirit is working in you. Give yourself up morning by morning to be led by the Holy Spirit. Go forth praising and at rest. And it's great, isn't it? I give my life to him and I'm never relaxed.

I don't mean that I'm not busy, but I'm not worried when I commit my life to the Lord. Cultivate the habit all through the day of joyfully depending on and obeying him, expecting him to guide, to enlighten, to improve, to teach, to use, and to do in and with you what he wills.

Count upon his working as a fact. This is faith. I've committed my life to him and I believe he's going to work. Whatever comes into my life, I count upon his working as a fact. Altogether, apart from sight or feeling, there it is again, only let us believe in and obey the Holy Spirit as the ruler of our lives and cease from the burden of trying to manage ourselves, I like to say.

Cease from the burden of trying to manage ourselves. Then shall the fruit of the Spirit appear enough that he wills to the glory of God. So, there you are. Your first of all, the initial act of dedication, then the continual process, day by day.

Serving Faithfully While Trusting God's Guidance

What else can you do? You can't just have to take that life and just sit there and wait for things to happen. Don't wait for things to happen. Keep busy for the Lord in your daily occupation, in the local church that you attend.

Study the word of God. Have an effective prayer life and make the time count for him. Remember, God guides us when we are in motion, doesn't he? You can't steer a bicycle when it's still. You can't guide a ship with a rudder unless it's in motion.

God doesn't reveal the blueprint all at once, just a step at a time. The psalmist says, I worry that a lamp comes to my feet and a light comes to my path. And that light, that flashlight, just tells you where to put your foot down the next time.

It would be nice in a way to know what's ahead, but in another way we wouldn't have the grace for it, would we? I'm glad God hasn't showed me twenty years ahead. I'd have collapsed. But he showed me one day, and by day, so shall my strength be.

The fission of the day is the evil thereof. God shows his will to us step by step. I've often told the story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. The architect was injured while the bridge was in process, and he spent most of the time while the bridge was being built, he spent it in the hospital.