Well, I watched him for a while. He seemed drawn to the kids at the event...not good. I told some of our fellow evangelists who were out that night and we prayed for him. All I could think of was that he was someone's child. I continued to watch him and then told one of the guys, EC that I was 'going in'.
As I walked near him I could see that he was absolutely filthy. His nails were all very long and you could immediately see dirt under them all. I also noticed that he had numerous scabs and sores covering his body. As I got closer I saw human bite marks on his exposed skin. I wondered how he compared to the maniac of Gadara.
"Hey, I like your shirt!" I said. "What's the cross for?"
"It's what Jesus did. See the skulls? They are death!!" He had a very strange look in his eyes while we talked.
"Yeah. What about this other cross? What's that about?" I asked. He mumbled something unintelligible. "Can we talk? Do you have time? You seem like a very interesting guy. Let's sit here."
He consented and we sat down. I told him my name and he told me his. He said he was 19. (I am going to change his name in this blog for his sake.)
"Do you live around here Tom?" He told me he did. He also told me that he was raised in 'the system' of foster care since he was very young. He told me that he had been sexually abused and mentally abused. He can not read or write.
"Then they threw me out on the street, now I live with my real Mom." As he spoke you could see he was under great pressure to try and focus. He was very aware of everything around him and yet he didn't look directly at anything.
"I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that." I told him. "I want to ask you some questions. Do you think you could answer some for me?" He nodded. "Where will you go when you die?" We talked a bit about the reality of Heaven and Hell. Tom didn't like the thought that he might end up in Hell but told me he didn't think he could go to Heaven because of some of the things he had done. I won't relate those things here.
"When Jesus hung on that cross He looked far into the future and saw your face, Tom. The Bible says that He bore all of our sins. He knew each one you would commit and He decided to pay for every one of them." At various points in our conversations I could see his muscles constrict and he would seem to go into a trance-like state.
"Do you believe that everyone has demons?" he asked me.
"No. But I do believe that some people have demons." I told him.
"I have demons." he said. "I see demons and angels and other things that people don't see." He quickly stood up and asked if I would come with him to go see a guy.
"Why do you need to see the guy?" I asked, fully aware that I had friends all around me but was not going to go beyond where they could see me.
"I want to get a cigarette." he said. At various points during the evening he would simply stand up and change the subject.
After he got the cigarette we walked away from the crowd a bit so that he could smoke it. "I tried to kill myself, I slit my wrists. I got hit by a car and thrown halfway into a parking lot." I thought of the father who took his demon-posessed boy to Jesus. (Luke 9) I found myself praying that the Lord would speak to this boy through his fog.
"I'm a destroyer! See that bicycle over there?" He pointed quickly at a bike across the parking lot. "I could tear it down and make weapons out of it! I can make a weapon out of anything." He told me that he sometimes fought even though he didn't want to. "I put the last guy in a full-body cast. When I was in jail I bit a huge hunk out of my arm because I didn't want to fight." Suddenly he got up and walked toward our booth.
Dayna was sitting on the slope behind the booth and I could see she was praying for us.
"Let's go sit over here with my friend, Dayna." While we sat with her I told Tom that the only one who could speak to God about his sin would be him.
"Yeah, I know. I talk to him alot." he said.
"The only thing He wants to hear from you is complete surrender." At this his eyes became wild and I could see the muscles in his arms and hands completely contort them. "Only you can do it and it may be the hardest thing you have ever done in your life." Dayna prayed as we talked. "If you think this is something that you can do then go ahead."
Tom talked a minute about how he could never close his eyes here. We told him he was safe and that the Lord would protect him if He made Him Master of his life.
"Have you ever played 'chicken' with a semi-truck?" he asked us.
"No."
"Well, I have and we were about this close when we finished" he measured about a foot's space.
"Well, you can't clean yourself up, Tom. You have to go to God and ask Him to cleanse you from all of this filth and sin that we talked about."
"Yeah, I know. I want to do that." he said.
"Do you need Jesus?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"Can you say it?"
"Yeah." he answered but never said it.
"Tom if you want to talk to God go ahead." I invited. "I will pray for you and then you pray, ok?" He nodded.
I prayed out loud while Dayna prayed silently for us. Tom stared straight ahead with wild, staring eyes. His hands were contorted again and he looked as though he was fighting himself.
He bowed his head and started mumbling gibberish. He kept it up for a few minutes. Then he suddenly stood up and walked away from us.
I walked down to him and said, "Tom did you pray?"
He was very angry now and said, "Yeah I was praying in tongues, don't you know that?" And then very calmly he said, "They have crosses over at that table and I want one but I don't have any money."
We walked over to the table with him. The crosses were made from nails bound together with wire. He chose a purple one and Dayna bought it for him. The lady showed him how to adjust the leather and he put it around his neck. He stood still for a moment holding onto it.
"That cross won't protect you, you know that don't you? Only Jesus can save you, Tom".
"I know."
We parted ways and he took my hand twice saying thank you each time.
Please pray for him. God knows his real name.
No comments:
Post a Comment