Miracles In Our Midst
A few years ago, Ashley Smith, an
Atlanta-area woman was taken hostage by the subject of the largest manhunt in
Georgia history. In spite of the
pressure, she calmed the killer by reading an excerpt from Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven
Life and talking with him about God.
She escaped by
persuading him to let her pick up her daughter from a children’s program at a
Southern Baptist Church.
One newspaper quote said, “I asked him if I could read,” Smith, then 26,
said in recounting the ordeal to reporters outside her attorney’s office. He
said, ‘What do you want to read?’ ‘Well, I have a book in my room.’ So I went
and got it. I got my Bible, and I got a
book called The Purpose-Driven Life.
I turned it to the chapter that I was on that day. It was chapter 13. And I started to read the first paragraph of
it. After I read it, he said, ‘Stop. Will you read it again?’ ‘So I read it
again,’” Smith said.
On Day 33 of the book, author Rick Warren, a
Southern Baptist pastor in Southern California, writes, “We serve God by
serving others. The world defines
greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you’ve
arrived. In our self-serving culture
with its me-first mentality, acting like a servant is not a popular concept.”
The gunman, Brian Nichols, had overpowered
an Atlanta courthouse deputy, as he was being escorted to court for a rape
trial. He then shot and killed the presiding judge
and a court reporter before killing another deputy as he left the
courthouse. Later he killed a federal
agent in an attempt to flee authorities.
Nichols, 33, held
Smith at gunpoint outside her Duluth apartment around 2:30 a.m., apparently
having chosen her at random as she returned from a trip to a nearby store. He tied her up and then began to converse
with her.
Smith asked Nichols not to
kill her because she was scheduled to pick up her 5-year-old daughter the next
morning. Four year earlier, Smith’s husband died in
her arms after being stabbed in a knife fight, according to The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution and Smith was concerned that her daughter would become
an orphan.
As time passed during the early morning
hours at the apartment, Nichols and Smith talked about God, family and life
experiences while the fugitive apparently became more comfortable with the
hostage.
I said, “You know,
your miracle could be that you need to—you need to be caught for this,” Smith
continued. “You need to go to prison and you need to share the Word of God with
them, with all the prisoners there.”
By 9:30 a.m., Nichols agreed to let Smith
leave to pick up her daughter. When she reached the first stop
sign on her route, Smith dialed 911 and within minutes a county police SWAT
team had surrounded the apartment with Nichols inside. Nichols waved a white piece of cloth to
signal his surrender and was taken into custody.
May we always remember that God is able to
work in the most impossible situations to bring change in seemingly
insurmountable situations. No matter what you or those around you are
facing, God’s answers are just a conversation away.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) What did Ashley Smith share about God’s
heart for Brian and all of us?
2) Do you believe God can reach the most
difficult person you know if we pray for them today?
Consider reading the Word:
Copyright 2014- Terry Risser
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