The Prayer Decoy

On the afternoon of Thursday, August 21, just a few minutes shy of 3 p.m., a man knocked on the door to the Stuart Hall Road entrance to our Sanctuary.

Our head building caretaker responded to the knock.

When he opened the door, this stranger said he wanted a pastor to pray for him.

Our building caretaker walked the stranger toward the church office.

Once there, our assistant pastor met with the stranger.

The request for prayer quickly shifted to a financial need to cover the cost of car insurance.

When our assistant pastor asked some basic questions about the car insurance, the stranger became belligerent and indignant. Displeased, he responded by cursing our assistant.

With this abusive language, the stranger was asked to leave the building. He was escorted out by our assistant and another staff member.

This pretense of prayer reminded me of an episode of The Andy Griffith Show titled “A Black Day For Mayberry.” The story is about a shipment of gold that is scheduled to go through Mayberry on its way to Fort Knox.

Of course, Mayberry’s biggest blabber mouth, Deputy Barney Fife, lets it slip out that a shipment of gold is on the way. This creates havoc among the citizens of Mayberry. They create an unwanted welcoming for the gold truck and its personnel.

Through a series of bungled assumptions by Deputy Fife, and his recently deputized associate bungler Gomer Pyle, we learn that the truck going through Mayberry was a decoy. The truck carrying the gold went a different route.

When Sheriff Taylor, Deputy Fife, and Deputy Pyle learn this, Deputy Pyle exclaims: “Shazam, a decoy.”

On Thursday afternoon, when I learned of our prayer seeking intruder, I felt like shouting: “Shazam, a prayer decoy.”

Yet, deep inside of me, I was angry, infuriated. Perhaps, I was just as angry as our prayer seeker when he learned that no financial assistance was to be provided because his prayer decoy plot had failed.

When I spoke further with our assistant about this stranger, turns out he wasn’t unknown to Trinity. In fact, I have his name on my prayer list.

In the past, with random infrequency, this person has shown up at Trinity seeking assistance. However, this was the first time that his interaction with church personnel was unacceptable.

One of the wristbands on my right arm says—“be kind.”

I wonder if Jesus would have been “kind” to our prayer seeker?

Might Jesus have confronted the prayer seeker by physically flipping him over like he did the tables in the temple?

Situations like this continue to erode what little Christianity I have left.

I wonder how the prayer seeker is wired?

How can a person falsely request prayer, immediately switch to ask for financial assistance, and seconds later become verbally abusive when asked reasonable, clarifying questions?

I wonder if he had worked his way down Forest Avenue stopping at each church trying the same prayer decoy?

But what I really want to know is what in the person’s lifetime put him in this position?

What is even more aggravating is I’ve been praying for this guy for years, and it appears that my prayers haven’t changed his behavior.

Maybe, I’m the problem.

Maybe, I’m a lousy prayer.

And to be even more truthful, this prayer deceit really bothered me because everyday, I’m praying for people who are in life or death situations with cancer, families who are providing care for loved ones with dementia, friends of our family who have children whose personal lives have fallen apart, and lifelong friends and co-workers whose hearts are forever crushed after tragically losing a daughter or son.

I can make this even more complicated by thinking about Hebrews 13:2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

I’m sorry God, but I fail to see any angelic traits from the prayer decoy schemer.

I look forward to the arrival of the magazine The Week in our mail. I always read the Wit and Wisdom section. This section features quotes from a wide variety of mostly famous people.

In the September 5-12 edition, I came across this quote from American writer, James Baldwin: “The reason I will never hate anybody again is that it’s too demeaning a confession on your part if you need to hate somebody. It means you are afraid of the other thing, which is to love and be loved.”

Mr. Baldwin is correct.

I strongly dislike the method of the prayer decoy seeker.

Because of this tactic, I am afraid, unable to love the prayer decoy seeker.

Why is my heart incapable of doing this?