Do not neglect hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2 NASB
On October 20, 2021, I found myself awakened at 4:45 AM by our very loud doorbell - a doorbell no one but delivery persons or strangers ever use. In fact, it is so rarely used these days that it seems unfamiliar whenever we hear its obnoxious ring.
My first response was to sit straight up in bed out of a heavy, deep sleep. My first thoughts? Is this a trick my Parkinson’s-affected brain is playing on me? Am I dreaming? Is that the doorbell? If that is the doorbell, is there a family emergency so dire that someone could not get through to me since my phone was in Do Not Disturb Mode and they had to come all the way to my house to get my attention?
We literally live in the countryside. Rural America. Our driveway is a quarter mile long. One has to intend to come to our house to even find it, so I assumed it had to be someone we knew…or one of our neighbors being a good neighbor and letting us know our horse had gotten out of the pasture and was wondering down the country road in front of our house. The thoughts that course through the mind when one is suddenly roused from a deep sleep…
I rushed from the bedroom without even thinking about the need to put clothes on. That’s how ‘out of it’ I was. As I came to the door, I peeked out one of the side windows and saw the silhouette of a young man I could not recognize due to the darkness. I unlocked the front door and opened the glass storm door slightly and said, “Hello?”
His first words? “Sir, do you have a gun?”
Either I was so dazed and confused or the Spirit of God was on me, but I felt absolutely no fear in that moment. The tug of my heart simply said, “Listen and help.”
I calmly asked him, “Do you have a gun?”
His response? “No, sir…but I need one.”
I asked him why he would need a gun. He simply said, “I’m just so tired of living…and I need a gun to end my life.”
By this time, Melinda had brought me shorts and a T-shirt and a blanket to wrap around my shoulders. She whispered into my ear that she was going to call the police. I told her that the young man needed help and that I felt I should talk with him. My wife then went into servant’s heart mode and brought the young man a bottle of cold water. Something so simple yet so profound. So Christ-like. So lost on me in the moment of how simple yet massive an elementary act of love in the name of Christ can be. I stepped out into the cold darkness and Melinda kept a watchful eye from inside the house as she dialed 911.
I asked the young man his name. He told me. I asked him his age. Nineteen. I asked him why he needed to take his own life. He showed me a handful of what must have been 40 or 50 pills he was planning on using if he could not find a gun. I assured him he would not be needing to take his life…that he had not lived life long enough to find out how special and purposeful and meaningful his life was. He then told me his story.
Two years earlier he had been in a terrible car accident and had been in a coma for several weeks. He showed me the scar that ran from one ear, over his head, all the way to the other ear. He had suffered a traumatic brain injury.
He went on to tell me he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant and that she had aborted the baby without giving him any say-so in the matter. He was overcome with grief at the loss of his relationship with his girlfriend and with the loss of a child he would never know in this life.
His family had placed him in a hospital for those with traumatic brain injuries as well as for those with mental health issues. He had been released after several weeks and had been sent to live with family in Oklahoma. He went on to explain to me how unwanted and how unnecessary and useless he and his life were. My perception was that he just needed someone to listen…someone to acknowledge his existence…someone to demonstrate value to his perceived value-less life.
He told me he had wandered down the road in front of our house and had knocked on several doors to ask for a gun…that no one had answered his knocks. I told him that most of the homes he had visited were inhabited by elderly couples and that he had probably scared them out of their wits…but that I could at least listen to him.
After hearing him pour out his heart, I told him my story…explained to him how I had once attempted to end my own life…expressed to him how much damage he would do to his family and friends by taking his own life…urged him to find a firm foundation and an anchor for his soul and mind…shared how Jesus was the foundation and anchor of my life.
I expressed to him that he would not exist had God not wanted him to exist…that he had a purpose but that he would need to seek Jesus in order to find that purpose…that he could have a relationship with someone who would never leave him…never forsake him…someone who saw value in his life.
As the two police cars pulled into our driveway, lights ablaze, I felt led to tell him that his aborted child was safe and in the arms of Jesus…and that he could tell Jesus how much he loved his child…and that Jesus would relay that message to his precious little one. The young man seemed to calm down greatly when I said that. He simply said, “It was a girl…”
As the police cars approached, I simply said, “These officers are here to help you. You have nothing to fear. They only want to help you.” Without turning on their sirens, the two officers, one young man, one young woman, calmly approached and asked what they could do to help. I explained a bit of what was going on and then the young man relayed his troubles to the officers. I was so impressed with the compassion of these two young police officers.
After listening to his story, they asked him to stand and turn around. He stood and placed his hands together behind his back…and this broke my heart…that he would be so used to this kind of treatment - that he expected to be cuffed.
The response of the officers completely disarmed his fear…and mine. They simply said, “We are not going to cuff you, sir. We simply need to search you to make sure you have nothing you could use to harm yourself.” The young man melted even more into a state of peace at the kindness and compassion with which the officers treated him.
After the brief search, one of the officers said, “We have paramedics on the way. They will transport you to the hospital for a health check and then they will help you find a good mental health facility where you will receive care.” The young man then told the officer he had a handful of pills and that he did not want to use them anymore. One of the officers asked for a plastic glove from the now-present paramedics in which he placed the pills.
I looked at the young man and said, “See. I told you they were here to help. That’s how valuable you are. Don’t forget…” and they led him away with great compassion. I felt Melinda and I had been involved in saving someone’s life…but realized very quickly that Jesus had been the One Who was with us in that moment…that Jesus had actually led him down our long, dark driveway to our completely unlit house…that perhaps…just perhaps, we had been visited by an angel, completely unaware…that perhaps we had been blessed and honored to have done it unto one of the least of these…
Dennis Jernigan
35 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me [something] to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me [something] to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You [something] to drink? 38 'And when did we see You [as] a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 'And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did [it] for one of the least of these brothers [or sisters] of Mine, you did [it] for Me.’ Matthew 25:35-40 NASB
Hear a song from 1981 that echoes from my own past into this young man’s present: https://youtu.be/_Tg00LknHeI
