Next time, Willie

Posted by Jesus on March 18, 2007

An interesting event took place over in Tennessee last week, and I would be shirking my duties as your Lord and Savior if I didn’t address it directly. Very rarely does a chance to teach so much come from such a simple story. A man with a gun walked into a meeting at a Baptist church on a Monday night, when about 20 people were present, and demanded money. What happened next is the a true manifestation of what I would have done, were I there in body and not just in spirit. If you’d like you can read the article directly, or just read on below for enlightenment.

The Rev. Mike Womack, who was present at the meeting immediately took notice of the man with the gun. Instead of calling the police, lashing out in a preemptive strike, or screaming like a little girl, Mike collected his thoughts and asked me what to do. I was just a tiny bit busy watching 24 though, so I just told him to do whatever it was that he thought I would do. It’s as good an answer as any. So he placed himself between the gun and the rest of the men in the meeting and addressed the gunman directly.

From the article:

Womack asked the man if he could pray for him. When the man said he could, Womack asked for his name and the man responded with “Bobby.”

Womack said he put his hand on the man’s shoulder and began praying for him. The man then said he would leave for $100.

A quick collection totaling about $120 was handed over. When asked by Womack if he would like to talk about his problems, the bandit asked the pastor if he would be in the church at 2 p.m. the next day.

How much simpler can it get, people? The normal reaction to a man with a gun would have been panic, but this preacher instead walked up and touched the man, prayed with him, gave him more money than he needed or wanted, and eventually established a time to bring the man back for further counseling. What he did in this event literally personifies my own potential actions, were I not so very engrossed in the fictional life of Jack Bauer and his terrorist-hunting ways. You know I created him, right?

In any event, for his absolutely spectacular handling of this matter, it is my proud privilege to award this week’s Jesus Jackpot to Mike Womack! Helping the poor and hungry is a point of concern for every Christian, as it is one of the more regular aspects of my own life and time on Earth. Employing the same logic used by yours truly when handling the Mary Mag ordeal, this preacher looked past the life of crime and the demand for money and even the fact that a gun was being pointed at him and his meeting of men and helped this individual. Were the man to come into that same room without a gun asking for the same money, I have no doubt that Mike would have done the same thing.

But the story doesn’t end there, unfortunately. Mike did make one critical error which almost saw today’s Jackpot going to Willie Nelson instead. What he did was absolutely the last thing I’d have done, and that’s tell an attorney what happened. In passing, and because they’re just buddies, Mike told a former DA about the man barging into the meeting with a gun and the former DA called the police. When the poor unfortunate soul came to the church the next day to receive the help he had solicited from Womack he was instead arrested. It’s a pitiful end to an otherwise excellent story.

One thing really continues to bother me though. When the man asked for $100 the 21 men in the room came up with $120 very quickly. If they have so much cash to throw around, why is that particular church’s take so low? Jesus thinks some people should be digging just a little bit deeper.

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