Christian Living

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Monday morning: First National Bank and Trust. Houston TX

"Hands up! Everyone on the ground! No sudden moves!" Customers hit the ground all around the bank as the man in the black mask waved his gun around menacingly. From the look in his eyes, no one had the slightest doubt as to his intentions. There was a decided dead look in his eyes that no one wanted to even tempt. Four men, however, had just entered the bank and were still just by the door. With a quick glance at each other, they noticed the gunman was looking the other way and they quickly scrambled back out the door. Just as they ran outside they heard the gun go off and people screaming. Happy just to have escaped, they ran from the bank a short ways before finally coming to a stop.

Standing there looking at each other, one of them finally spoke up, "We should do something. Warn others coming to the bank not to go in." A couple of the others nodded, but one guy wrinkled his brow, "The cops will take care of that. No need for me to get involved," and he walked off not looking back.

The others looked at each other for a moment. One was a poor man, dressed hardly better than rags. He looked again at the man walking away and had a wild, desperate look in his eyes. "Can you believe that!? He just walked off. We have to start warning people!" A young woman was walking towards the door of the bank and the man started yelling, "HEY! STOP! There's a man in there with a gun!" The man beside him grabbed his arm, "Hey, you can't be yelling at people like that. They don't like it. You'll just scare people and that's no good. We've got to tell them in a way they'll want to listen to." The wild eyed man looked at him like he was crazy and hurried to the door of the bank yelling about the crazed gunman inside.

The other two looked at each other, the one, a young man, looked at the other and said, "I've got my guitar here in the car, how about we start a little concert and sing to people about how good it'll be to stay outside the bank." The other man looked a little doubtful. "Oh, I know! I've also got some puppets in the car, how about you put on a puppet show about how good it is to stay outside the bank while I sing on the guitar."

The other man just kind of looked tired and said, "I don't know. I'm don't really feel up to doing all that, but you go ahead." The he walked off. As he walked by he stopped a couple of people and mumbled something at them about not going into the bank. The people he talked to didn't really listen to him and so he gave up after a couple of tries.

Meanwhile, the young man was energetically talking to people and had gotten his guitar out. His winning personality and enthusiasm actually convinced a couple of people to join him. They moved out in front of the door a ways and he started to sing and play the guitar while the others put on a little play with the puppets telling everyone how good it was to stay outside the bank. It was an impressive show, no doubt, and the passersby were impressed with the show, the music, the puppets, but they found it...unusual that these people were doing all this about the goodness of staying outside the bank. Some laughed, some ignored them, a few joined them because they liked the show. Those that joined would hang around for awhile, but mostly they gave up and moved on after a time. After all, who really cares about the goodness of staying outside a bank?

All the while, the poor man in the tattered clothes stood right by the door shouting at the top of his lungs, "THERE'S A GUNMAN INSIDE! HE'LL KILL YOU IF YOU GO IN THERE! STOP! PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT GO IN THAT BANK!" Certainly he frightened all the people who passed by. Many thought he was crazy and went in anyway, though he tried with all his might to stop them. But many heard and believed. Those who believed joined him in his crazed seeming yelling, they almost never gave up, because after all they were saving lives, not extolling the wonders of staying outside the bank. All day they stood there, occasionally trying to convince the band and puppet show to join them, but mostly just yelling with all their might warning people not to go into the bank. Without doubt, they saved many lives that day.

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