yourtown4jesus.com

We need a Hero!

We need a Hero!

I was driving over 3 hours to minister on Tuesday when my oldest son, Justin, called.

We talked for two hours.

Folks, that NEVER happens.

But Justin had a story to tell.

Last Saturday night, he and his wife, Sara, were coming home from a party here in Texas. He wanted to leave at 11 but she talked him into leaving at midnight for their drive home to Stephenville.

As they were driving home through a hilly, wooded area called Glen Rose, the car in front of them slowed down to avoid a deer in the road. Justin slowed, too. He slowed just enough to catch a glimmer of light reflecting off a car’s tail light upside down in a ditch across the road. He said it barely registered that this was what he had actually seen. He was tired and
it was dark. As he drove on, he said, “something” told him he needed to turn around and investigate.

As he approached the car in the darkness, using his own hi-beams for light, he said he heard the car engine hissing. Then he heard a faint female voice saying, “Help me….” He alerted Sara to call 911. The driver was in her early 20’s and, when he asked her if she was hurt she said she couldn’t feel one of her legs. She asked about her baby. Justin looked in the back seat and saw the 2-year old, motionless, face down in its own blood. “I didn’t think I could handle a dead baby, dad,” he said to me, but he placed his hand on the baby’s back and she sat up, her nose broken and in shock, not crying at all. Justin picked up the baby, gave her to Sara, then returned to help the woman to escape. “I was afraid the car would explode because of all those engine sounds,” he added.

The lady’s leg had been broken in two places. She was coming home from a birthday party in Abilene and fell asleep at the wheel and missed the curve. As they sat waiting for the emergency responders, Justin surveyed the damage. “Man! I don’t know why you didn’t go through the windshield and land in those trees…this was definitely God,” he told her. She agreed.

Soon after, the ambulance and police arrived but not before the couple took her name and number.

Where was God in this? Leaving at 11, the woman may have been missed. Had there not been a deer in the road, he would have had no reason to slow down. She broke her leg but could have left her child an orphan. The baby could have been killed or left paralyzed.

Was I proud of my son? You bet. I told him that he has always been a hero, from the little boy he defended on the bus when he was in third grade to the guy who was about to be beaten up by several cowboys when Justin stepped in and told them they’d have to fight him, too. They backed off. That grateful kid told me that was the first time he had ever experienced the love of God through another human being. “If Justin would risk his life for me, God must REALLY love me, “he admitted to me. A neighbor once told me that he trusted Justin even more than he trusted his own kids.

Is he perfect? Hardly. He’s as strong as an ox and can toss a football farther than anybody I’ve ever seen. I attended a Junior High football game where Justin (nickname “Juice”) was playing linebacker and was sitting with a man who used to be a scout with the Dallas Cowboys. “I’ve never seen a boy
his age hit so hard,” said the old scout. Nevertheless, Justin started smoking at age 11, doing drugs by age 13 and, after moving away to live with his mother, I rarely saw him anymore for years. I truly felt as if he had died and I wasn’t informed until after the funeral. I watched his high school team win
the State Playoff game at Texas Stadium – a team he should have been playing on – and, after the game, asked him how it felt to see all his old teammates winning the game. “It made me sick,” he said, sadly.

In time, he says he was transporting drugs from Arlington to Stephenville. He bleached his hair and pierced himself and cut himself, tattoos everywhere. Sagging pants, crooked ball caps…you know the look.

Yes, I visited him in jail.

And in rehab.

He thinks he may have even killed people. He does recall shooting at someone. But he was high and can’t recall. He’s had numerous close calls with death himself as well as terrible injuries. Numerous fights, too,
and his body is covered with scars including one on his forehead shaped like a backward “J.” He fell onto a barbed wire fence in the dark and ripped open his forehead one night. Terrible.

I officiated the wedding when he got Sara pregnant. He was stoned, unshaven and late that day.

No, he was no choir boy. No Eagle Scout.

But he memorized over 500 Scripture verses as a child. A father of two now free from drugs and all that after a glorious deliverance, he said he prays every day and reads his Bible more than most Christians. From
time to time, he attends church – First Assembly or House Church with Barbara and me. He looks good and talks more and more intelligently each time I see him as God has restored his mind. He’s an avid reader.
Always has been. Great sense of humor, good looking despite the scar on his head.

As we talked (the 3-hour drive seeming like 20 minutes), he shocked me when he started talking about God’s plan for his life. He said he often thinks about becoming a drug counselor. Seems people have always come to him for counseling. Though he had little godly counsel to offer, truth is, God’s gift was still there and was without repentance. We talked about him returning to school and eventually helping some people.

Do YOU know anyone struggling with an addiction? If so, try and see him for what he is GOING to be. God STILL has a pan and all that kid needs from you is unconditional love and a whole lotta prayer. Not lectures. Don’t try and be the Holy Spirit.

As I’ve heard Kim Clement sing, “Somewhere…in da future…you look a lot betta than ya look right now!”

I spoke with a woman just yesterday who told me about the day, 8 years ago, when her 16-year old with drug problems said he wanted to talk to her. She replied, “I can’t deal with this stuff right now!” He killed himself 10 minutes later.

Listen and love ‘em, folks. It matters. God’s grace will get you through it. I can relate to the frustration, all the pain, even the desire to give up. I know what it’s like to sit in my living room with a cop, filling out a Missing Person’s Report. Father God has had some pretty dysfunctional kids, too. The Bible is loaded with examples. I am one of those, too.

Yes, I was beaming with pride at hearing Juice’s story but I was even more amazed that we were talking so much about Jesus. Very cool! I’m believing God for the same for you and your loved one. God is NO respecter of persons, after all.

We need a hero? This raunchy-looking generation may be the long-awaited Calvary just over the hill and just in time. We may find guys with more tattoos than teeth leading the charge!

Just thinking.

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo
A servant of God
www.YourTown4Jesus.com