By Steve Nelson
Courage is something we often wish we possessed more of. Sometimes, when you least expect it, God brings circumstances into your life that inspire you to be courageous for Him.
It was a Friday morning and my wife and I had gone to a convenience store to pick up a part for our car. As we neared the exit, we were faced with an unexpected crisis. Across the parking lot, we saw a car with someone leaning into the back- seat, their fist pounding on a person inside the vehicle.
I didn’t have time to think about how to react. I only felt a flood of emotions begin to well up inside of my soul as I saw what was apparently a young girl being beaten by a man. Almost before I could think, the instincts kicked into high speed as words came pouring forth out of my mouth. I yelled so loudly, I almost startled myself. “Stop it!” I screamed.
Rushing across the parking lot toward the vehicle, I stood next to the door as the person who was inflicting pain stepped back, straightened up, and turned around to face me.
His size and body mass dwarfed mine. “Cut it out!” I screamed. The anger in his voice compounded by the disdain on his face spoke volumes about the hatred in his heart. “It’s none of your business! Get out of here!” he said.
Not looking for his approval, I returned the reply, “You’ve made it my business because you’ve done it in front of me.”
His next words were a threat—promising to beat the living daylights out of me if I didn’t leave him alone.
While I realized the danger I was in, I also knew that if I backed down, there would be no hope of helping the young woman he was abusing. I looked him square in the eyes and said, “If you do that, it will be the last thing you do before you go to prison.”
Standing next to me, my wife tried to rally her support, but his anger was so great it seemed impossible to turn the tide of emotions that was pouring from his hateful heart.
In the backseat, a young girl was weeping and her grandmother in the front seat echoed the abuser’s tirade, telling us this matter was none of our business and we needed to stay out of it.
Often family dysfunction goes so deep that everyone participates in the dynamics of abuse. A young girl is beaten because of something she says or something she won’t do and everyone rallies behind the abuser. Why? They’re afraid if they don’t, his anger will be released on them.
What seemed like an eternity was probably only a few minutes before the store manager came out to see what the commotion was and to ask what they should do. “Call the police,” I shouted. A few minutes later, the police car arrived, but during the interval my wife had the opportunity to give the young girl our phone number, assuring her that if she needed help, we would be there for her.
There are no passive Christians. You can’t serve Jesus without actively enlisting in Heaven’s warfare against the onslaught of evil that is pressing against God’s children.
Doing nothing is still doing something and when you see someone who is being abused or hurt, you have a responsibility, a moral imperative, to take action—to do everything within your power to intervene.
You may not feel comfortable with getting involved, but certainly the person who’s being hurt is not feeling comfort- able either. It’s not up to us to decide if we should act. We are commissioned to defend and shelter the defenseless victims of abuse. God expects his children to help others when they are being hurt—to act as we would want others to if we were in their shoes.
We never heard from the young woman, but I like to think that perhaps as she goes through life, that day will stand out in stark contrast to many others. That day will be a reminder that someone she didn’t know cared enough to speak up for her. That, because we cared, she might begin to see herself as more valuable than what her physical and emotional scars told her she was worth. My prayer is that, by God’s grace, the actions of strangers would instill in her heart the value that Heaven places on her and to see for herself the real potential she already has and can achieve to an even greater degree if she sees what God sees in her.
When you speak up for those who can’t speak for them- selves, you echo the words of your Heavenly Father who says, “I love you so much that I gave everything so that you could live!”
Commit today to live your life so others can see in your actions a connection to God’s transforming love.
–Steve Nelson is a pastor in Wyoming and has a passion for reaching the lost and hurting for Jesus. Email him at: [email protected]