I’ve always found it interesting that God didn’t tell Gideon to go in the might of God, but rather he told him, go in thy might. Now that raises the question: what was Gideon’s might? I believe the answer is found in verse 13. Gideon had the courage to ask God a question: “Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?” Where are all the miracles which our fathers told us of? Not only did Gideon have the courage to ask a question, he also questions the very actions of God. Verse 13: “...but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
No wonder God chose Gideon. He was a man of courage.
Phil Donahue, a former television talk show host, had something of a reputation for giving clergy a hard time, and he said the reason he’s that way is that he had little respect for them. Most clergy will do anything for some media attention, he said.
In his autobiography, however, he told about an encounter with a pastor who was different. It happened while Donahue was a young television reporter in Ohio, and one day he was sent to West Virginia in the bitter cold winter to cover a mine disaster. He went by himself in a battered little car, carrying a minicam to film the story.
It was so cold when he got there, however, that the camera wouldn’t work. So he put it inside his coat to warm it up enough to run. In the meantime, the families of the trapped miners were gathered around. They were just simple mining people – women, old men, and children. Several of the trapped men were fathers.
Then the local pastor arrived. He was rough-hewn, and he didn’t speak well at all. But he gathered all the families around in a circle, and they held one another in their arms while he prayed for them.
As this was going on, Donahue was still trying to get his camera to work, and he was incredibly frustrated because he couldn’t film the poignant scene. Finally, after the prayer was over, Donahue managed to get his camera operating. So he told the pastor he had his camera working now and asked if the pastor would please do the prayer again so he could film it for the evening news.
Donahue said that he’d been with the world’s best-known public figures, including preachers, and they were all willing to redo a scene in order to get on the news.
This simple West Virginia preacher, however, told Donahue, “Young man, we don’t pray for the news. I’m sorry, but we’ve already prayed, and I will not pose.”
Until his death, Donahue always remembered that pastor with respect. You don’t forget that kind of character, no matter who you are or what you believe.
What to do:
✞ Remember, you can tell a lot about a man by the way he treats those who can do nothing for him
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