Back in 2008, I was riding on a train in from downtown Chicago, when a mother and her little girl stepped on. The mother sat her daughter in the seat and stood next to her. The mother then stared out the window and glanced at her phone from time to time. What she failed to see during the entire train ride, was the old man she had set her daughter next to. This man smiled at the little girl and stared at her for nearly the entire ride. This smile was not a loving smile of a grandfather with his granddaughter. This smile filled me with anger, fear, and disgust. I moved across the train and stood directly in front of him and stayed there. He looked up and the burning lust in his eyes turned to fuming anger at me. I’m sure I would have lost that fight, but every part of me wanted to throw him off the moving train. Instead, I just burrowed my eyes into him and fought off my impulses to attack him. He yelled a few curse words and tried to get me to leave. I stood there for the duration of the train ride glaring at him.
I now can say with complete understanding why God said it would be better to have a millstone tied around their neck and thrown into the ocean. That’s all I wanted to do at that very moment.
Since that day God has been drawing my heart more and more to orphans and children in general. I didn’t know why, but the spot in my heart just continued to grow. Part of me wonders if that’s what the, “Get ready!” is all about.
I can put it into better words using the scripture God used to finally sway my heart.
“You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.” This is Deuteronomy 22:22-24. It’s nestled right in the middle of instructions on how to pay back someone for stolen cattle. I was actually listening to the Bible read that morning while getting ready for work when I heard it. It was so out of place that I had to stop and read it myself.
This is the first time in all of scripture that God orders the defense of the orphans and widows. The funny thing is, everything around these verses says things like, “If your ox dies in your neighbors care, take it to the leaders and they will settle it.” But in this passage, God says, “I will kill you with the sword.” For God, this matter is personal!
I sat on that verse for weeks. During that time God started showing my passages about Mighty Men of Valor. As a culmination, I went to a men’s retreat and the whole weekend was only about Mighty Men and how to become one. I don’t have light bulb moments often, and this wasn’t really one either, but more of a moment when I started to see that the two things fit together.
That day on the train made me realized that God put in me a righteous fire in me and a burning anger, just like in Deuteronomy, to fight for justice. If you knew me well at all, you’d probably laugh if I said I was angry. You might not believe it could even happen. I’m not anger often, which is why, when it happens, it’s usually something I remember.