Rescued

I sat down to do some reading this morning when I came across a friend of mines blog who is also a musician. He shared a story that happened a few days ago on tour. In a nut shell one of the guys wife was on the road with them working as road manager. Just before her husband was to go on and start the show a security guard made some sexually inappropriate remarks to her that left her feeling very violated and hurt. Once her husband and fellow tour mates found out about what had happened they found the man who had offended her and confronted him. The man stumbled over his words attempting to say he was sorry, but the damage had been done. One of the guys told him “that badge you’re wearing means that you’re supposed to be here to protect us from people like you!” To which the man responded “You’re right, I didn’t mean to…” My friend then said these words to him , “From the mouth proceeds the issues of the heart. It’s clear what you meant. We have the moral high ground here, and you need to leave right now…”

Too many times in the church we have this idea that if we confront someone about their inappropriate behavior we are not acting in love. We are afraid that we might be seen as a bully, or "holier than thou." When in fact if these guys would not have confronted the man, the woman would have had to see this man the entire night and would not have felt like somebody stood up for her. She had been cut down and hurt. She needed to be rescued, and reaffirmed that she had value.

In fact, that night on the bus they all got together and talked about what happened. She said that her tears of hurt turned into tears of appreciation for every man on that tour who came to her rescue. They prayed that the man would find grace and be pushed closer to healing.

As I read the story I was almost in tears because of the courage that was displayed by those men. You might read this and think that it's not that big of a deal, but I would ask you to ask yourself how often you see something like that happen? How many people are left feeling hurt and abandoned because we do not come to their rescue?