Paul and the Courtroom

At the suggestion of my principal and thanks to the incredible response from colleagues and parents to an email I sent, I am sharing here the story of a friend of mine and how it affected some of my students.

The Crime

A few years ago, my friend Paul was driving with his son.  After they passed a car on the road, the driver of that car pursued them in a fit of road rage and brandished a gun.  No one was hurt, and my friend and his son got away safely, but they were shaken nonetheless.

The Trial

Yesterday, my friend texted several of us to say that the court date had finally arrived.  He asked for prayer, but not for the reason you might expect.

Paul's text:  Part of the agreement that I made was that I get to make a "victim's statement."  I intend to talk about God's forgiveness and my relationship with Jesus Christ.  Please pray that I do so with boldness, authority, and with grace.  Please pray that it would be well received and that it would penetrate hearts in the courtroom.

I am sure there are many of us who claim to follow Jesus who would not have taken that approach.  We would have been glad that an ugly chapter of life was behind us and we may have prayed for the perpetrator, but I doubt that any great number of us would have seen the court date as an opportunity to evangelize, but that is who Paul is.  No, he is not an evangelist by trade, but he certainly is one by calling, and not long after his first text, we received another.

Second text:  Well, it's over.  I got to say my thing.  I told the defendant, in the presence of the judge, all the attorneys, and all the people in the court, that because of my relationship with God, I am commanded to forgive when I am wronged, and that I forgive him for what he did.  I then challenged him by telling him that there is brokenness in him.  After all, who pulls a gun on someone simply because they pass them on the road?  I told him that I understood his predicament because I, too, was once a broken man.  But through a relationship with Jesus Christ, I was able to address the brokenness in my life and find peace.  And I wished him that he would find that same peace.  You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom.  When we walked out, the prosecuting attorney told me that I had spoken well, but she was surprised at the "religious context" of my speech.  She said it's not something we usually do.  She then volunteered the information that she is a Muslim.  I told her that as a Muslim, surely she would understand the impact of forgiveness and peace.  She said she did.  And then, amazingly, she asked me to keep her in my prayers!

The Classroom

Deacon Rick Wagner is the president of the school where I teach, and he is big on stories.  He is always talking with students and faculty about the importance of sharing stories as a way to share the gospel, which of course is exactly what Jesus did.  My class of Latin III students was in session when I received the texts from my friend.  Ordinarily I would have ignored my phone's vibrations, but they were preparing independently for finals, so I read them, and once I had, I had to interrupt my students in their work.  I simply had to share what friend Paul had done in that courtroom.  When I had finished reading the texts, one of my students said, "Plaudite omnes," which is Latin for "everyone, applaud."  It is something I often say when a student has done or said something extraordinary, and this young man thought it the appropriate thing to say in that moment.  The rest of his classmates must have agreed, for they all began to clap.