The Guilty Bystander: Watching God

Blog 1-The Guilty Bystander—Watching God
Big Red
He was fourteen years old smoking his lungs out right on campus. “I want to play football, but I can’t quit smoking.”
“Do you think you can quit easier with God or without God.” I asked.
“God, of course.” was Monroe’s no brainer answer.
We discussed the Gospel, and he readily embraced Christ.
Then trouble. I often saw family, especially fathers, angry when
I got their kids involved with Jesus.
At breakfast the next morning there was a knock on the door thatshook the house. I rushed out to face what looked like a 280 pound bulldog. It was Big Red Madison. I put Ann, Danny and Billy behind me, fist slightly coiled. He looked at me and said, “You been talkin’ to my boy. He told me he quit smokin’ and it upset me. He told me he’s got Jesus in his heart. "We gotta talk, preacher." I gotta quit drinkin’.”
My fist opened up. I realized I held his heart. We went back to my study. He had left his prostitute wife and moved into a motel. All night he fought it and at sunrise he poured the bottle down the drain and headed for the parsonage. After I explained the Gospel I taught him a neat prayer about repentance, sin, and the blood of Christ. He prayed quite an insufficient prayer.
“Lord, help me.” That’s all it was But it must have worked!
Big Red had a fourth grade education. It seems his wife Maude’s family was a network of licentious lushes. She came to Christ next, then her sister of the same occupation. Then three other sons. Nephew Skipper came to me drunk. He followed Big Red’s lead and simly prayed. In twelve months about sixteen family
members from “the other side of the tracks” came to Christ.
Red called me after that year and wanted to talk. He shyly showed me the vast callouses thick as knee pads. At that moment I discovered why all these people kept coming to Christ and our church. Red Madison shared this stunning confession:
“I aint educated and not much at talkin’, so I decided that if I could spend forty hours a week workin’ at the paper mill, I could spend forty hours a week prayin’for my family.
Big Red became a deacon in the church. He taught me about prayin’.

I was just a guilty bystander, watching God work.