In The Midnight Hour

Earlier this summer we held a trial in which a young man was accused of kidnapping and armed robbery. As the young man's girlfriend said, "what had happened was"...he and his friend decided to "hit a lick." Feel free to look this term up on urban dictionary, but for those of you with little time, it means they planned to rob someone in order to get a lot of money quickly. The accomplice testified against the young man, and told how they were just walking down the street and chose a house they thought probably belonged to rich people. Asleep in that house was a retired minister and his wife. The couple awoke to find these two young men standing over them with guns. After a couple of minutes the woman began to sing hymns. Her singing really disturbed the two young men and they kept asking her to stop, but she just kept singing.

The Judge and I have been traveling this week and we pass the time by telling stories of our families. This week he told me about his father-in-law who was a decorated World War II veteran - he won the purple heart and other awards for valor. He literally saved the men in his units lives multiple times. He told the Judge that you can train people and practice exercises, but when it comes down to the real battle, you never know how people are going to react - they either freeze up or they fight.

Incidentally, I did not tell the Judge that when my grandfather was in boot camp, before heading out to World War II, the leaders made him a "communications runner." This meant that he had to run the lines of communication between the various bunkers. He realized really quickly that this would be the first person the enemy would try to kill. So, he made friends with the cook and was transferred to the mess detail. He cooked his way through the war...

I feel like we spend much of our lives in preparation for hard times, or at the least talking about it and judging other people when they are faced with hard times. How do you think we got the term What Would Jesus Do? Or the standard the Judge and I like to use, "Methodist Sunday School Rule No. 1 - Do Right." Really though, we worship God and we talk about our moral standards; we weigh out the how and why of our religious doctrines. But when the rubber meets the road, we have to decide are we going to freeze up or fight.

It seems really easy on paper, but it is not. I find some people completely isolate themselves from any sort of controversial idea, or material, or people, so that they are never faced with hard decisions. In fact, I heard someone recently say I wish some news was never reported. I guess this is the ignorance is bliss category. Of course other people throw themselves at every cause and situation, constantly making themselves martyrs. I know I am guilty of both at times.

What makes things harder is the "worlds'" misunderstanding. Like when the world calls for everyone to get their "pound of flesh" when they are done wrong. People seem to not understand forgiveness - they think it is wimpy and that people are giving up to easily. Trust me, I am a lawyer - I see this all the time. This has permeated throughout our society. I have even found myself questioning why I would forgive certain people, and then I have to slap myself upside the head. I may have said this before, but I heard a great line once, "people are more concerned with Nancy Grace, than Jesus' grace."

When Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in jail, they began singing in the midnight hour. I don't believe it was actually the song, "In the Midnight Hour", but nonetheless, the songs they were singing sure did get the attention of the others around them. I am certain that just as the young men who decided to "hit a lick", those people in the jail with Paul and Silas must have been pretty shocked at their decision to sing, "fight through the despair," and not coward away. It is a funny thing though, "the world always listens when we Christians sing in our midnight hour. What wins people to Christ is not our sound doctrine or our beautiful worship or our high moral standards. It is not our friendliness or our parish programs. It is the courage and joy which sings out from our souls when midnight misery descends upon us." Forward Day by Day. (These are lines I wish I had written.) I hope we all find the courage to sing during our midnight misery, and not let the world keep us quiet.