14 August 2007 Devotion for Today "The Cringe Factor" Proverbs 22:3

14 August 2007 Devotion for Today  “The Cringe Factor”  Proverbs 22:3

            Let me tell you this morning about Prasad.  Prasad was a thirty-five year old Christian man from India I met about 18 years ago.  He came here on the premise of enrolling in one of our seminaries.  He said he was a pastor.  He had left his wife and three children back in India so that he could come to America study.  An elderly lady in our church had actually met Prasad and his family on a mission trip to his country.  The next thing she knows, Prasad is arriving on the doorstep to her senior-citizen cottage!  The only problem is, he can stay for a few days, but at the end of the week, the manager of the retirement home association is calling her and telling her he can’t stay there, so he has to leave.  Helen then calls me and asks if there is someone who can take him in.  I put the word out, but I get no response.  So guess what?  We have a houseguest move in with us.  My wife is having reservations, but I assure her that it’s all going to work out okay and that it will be good to help someone like Prasad.  “What would Jesus do?” I asked her.  Having guilty feelings, my wife relented.  The first week or so it is pretty good- in fact he is the perfect house guest- he’s cleaning the house and helping out around the house- he’s scrubbing floors and doing a lot of things.  I’m also working on building our new church building and he’s working on that all day long and doing a good job.  He’s helping with the baby, etc.  We can’t pay him, but he seems like he’s going to work out okay.  Robin says again, however, “Jeff, this is just not going to work.  I have a feeling that something is wrong about this whole thing.  I just don’t know why.” One week turns into a month, and we still can’t find a school for him to go to, because they all require him to have a student visa, which he can’t get because he needed to apply for it before he left India.  He wants me to sponsor him, but I tell him I can’t.  Sponsorship takes money, and neither I nor my struggling little church can afford to do that.  Then Prasad says “My wife is a nurse, you need nurses in this country.  If she comes then it will be no problem.” Yes but she needs to be certified in this country and the time and the logistics involved make it impossible to consider.  Soon, Prasad’s thirty day tourist visa is up, he says to me, “I need you to take me to Pittsburgh and see the immigration people.  We pay money maybe they let me stay!  I said, “Prasad, it don’t work that way in this country!  You don’t bribe public officials they will throw you in jail!”   After a while Prasad is getting sick with worry.  He is now talking about killing himself because nothing is working out.  I said, “Prasad, I’m sorry, this is it!  Its time to put you on a bus to New York so you can get on a plane back to India.” I never heard from Prasad again- I don’t know if he ever made it New York.  I don’t know if he ever made it back to India.  I rather imagine he has shown up on another doorstep somewhere with this sob story. 

I know that sounds heartless, especially from a Christian minister who is supposed to be like Jesus and helping people.  But something I had to learn, and still have to learn sometimes, the hard way.  Too many clinging vines can become a parasite that will sap you of all your energy, resouces, and spiritual resolve.  That’s what I meant when I referred to pulling the tooth a few days ago  If there is a problem, work through it, but if you can’t, its time to  get rid of it.  Problem was, I kept thinking its going to get better.  No, in most situations like this, it doesn’t get any better- it gets worse!

            I went to a pastor friend for help on this matter, because I was feeling guilty for having to make my friend go back home.  You know what he said, “I am old enough now and have enough experience that I just don’t do anything or work with anyone where the cringe factor is involved.  I’ve learned so many lessons the hard way- I just won’t do it anymore.  My rule is this: anytime I have to cringe or take a big gulp to agree to do anything substantial with anyone, I just don’t do it.  If I pray about it and don’t have a good feeling about it, I won’t do it.  That especially includes lending money to relatives, finding somebody a job- whatever- it usually blows up in my face!” 

            If you ever have to deal with a situation that you know of up front that there is a cringe factor involved, don’t do it!  That is the cringe factor?  That is the big gulp you take to agree to do anything substantial with someone, whether to hire him, work with him, buy a car from him, or appoint that person to a committee nominate him to do something when you know that perhaps you shouldn’t do it.   God gives us a little voice down deep inside- its called discernment- that tells us “Don’t Do it!”   We need to listen to His voice when it says, “This doesn’t feel right.  There is something phony about all this.  I really don’t feel comfortable doing this or agreeing to this.  This is not what I want.  I don’t like what I am agreeing to.  This violates an important value.  I am really going to be sorry I did this.  I wish this were not happening.  This feels the same like it did last time he promised me he would pay it back!”.  Again, listening to what Solomon says in Proverbs 22:3  A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, But the simple pass on and are punished.   More Christians would be more effective if they would just pay attention to this gut-instinct that God put there.  But being the sweet people that we are, we feel like we have to rescue everybody, or feel sorry or compassionate with someone who has a problem.  The next thing we know we are way in over our heads so deep we can’t see our way out.  Don’t do it!

            Have a blessed day!

 

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com

jcrussell@liberty.edu

 

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