I worked as summer job between high school and college at a metal cutting facility. Old machines that sliced through metal like cheese. Needless to say, I was nervous around those cutters even though my job was to get pretty close as I gathered metal scraps for disposal. I knew full well what was more powerful. Comparing the density of my skin and bones to the cutting power of these shears, I would lose every time. I felt vulnerable, and that made me careful.
There I met a man named “Wolfy”. He embraced the name with a smile that defined it. You see Wolfy had an almost toothless grin that boasted two long crooked teeth where fangs could be imagined to be. I jokingly thought of him as a “Hillbilly Vampire”. I noticed he never ate. We worked in very hot conditions and the physical work burned a lot of calories. Me and the rest of the crew ate what would amount to a meal at every break. But wolfy ate only cigarettes. I realized he was very poor. We offered, but he always refused. I realized he was very proud as well. He walked to and from work.
Towards the end of summer, I finally talked him into letting me buy him and his wife a week’s worth of groceries. We had talked, I had shared the Gospel, and I wanted to demonstrate it before I left for good. I gave him cash and we coordinated that I would pick him and his groceries up at the store at a certain time the next day. To his credit he seemed to spend it all on food and our plan worked. On our way to his home, he became very apologetic about his house and his wife. He said that his wife was crazy, in the true sense of those words, and that his house was horrible and there was no way to sugar coat it. He was right. I was taken aback. His house was dilapidated and rarely had water or power. That’s right, they lived much of their time in a home without electricity and running water. And it smelled like it for sure. That’s when I noticed he had bought very few cold food items, a delicacy to them, and understood those items would be consumed that very day. By them and the roaches.
Then I noticed his wife. She sat in the corner in a rocking chair facing the middle of the room. She did not look at us or respond in any way to our entrance. Wolfy didn’t engage her at all and had asked me to ignore her because she constantly mumbled to herself. Her mumbling would get louder and quieter at times, but it never stopped unless she was asleep, he said. She was impossible to ignore. She was dirty. She was pitiful. She was gone. He stayed with her because he knew she would sit there and starve to death if he didn’t come home. We stood near her, ignoring her.
Feeling very uncomfortable but having accomplished what I had set out to do, I said one last thing. Not knowing how it could possibly work, I invited them to come to church with me. At that moment a very strong hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me down till I was face to face with something. With eyes locked to mine, and with clarity of speech mixed with blasphemous vulgarity, a full scale and seething rejection of God and His Church was spewed forth. As volume and spittle increased, all my courage vanished. I tried to pull away and literally couldn’t! I glanced at Wolfy who offered no help and just looked at me apologetically as if to say, “I told you so”. In seconds that felt like eternity I was the one that was “cast out”. It could have been worse I guess (Acts 19:16).
Easter is almost upon us beloved. Time for new life in Christ. It is scary, but it is time to go to Church and face our demons. With matching severity, may we cast out our sins (Hebrews 12:1), and prepare our hearts to welcome our Risen Lord anew.
