A break-in and a broken heart

To read this blog in printable form, click go to www.micahcentral.org/blogs/Laje.doc .

Last week, the Micah House was broken into once again. Our brand new night watchman fell asleep while someone climbed the light post adjacent to our house and hopped onto our second floor terrace. The watchman woke up when the thief dropped a bike over the wall onto the street, but after a brief scuffle, the thief escaped.


The following evening, Monday, one of our notorious neighborhood thugs came by the front door of the Micah house to ask for a glass of water. We get a constant stream of people at our door; some ask politely for food or water while others belligerently demand it. Our watchman saw this guy, a 27 year-old gangster who goes by the street name Laje (Lah-hay), and motioned to me that this was the one who had broken in the night before. Laje's normal routine is to laughingly intimidate everyone around him; when he asks for something, he expects to get it. Several months ago, he threatened me for refusing to give him food out of our kitchen.


When our watchman told me that Laje was the one who broke in, I went outside to confront him. At first, I just wanted to get him...to do anything possible to make him pay for his crimes and threats. I was angry and wanted revenge, not because Laje stole our bike, but because he stole our sense of security. Thankfully, instead of running him down with our van, which I was tempted to do, God seemed to take over at that point. I truly believe that He put words into my mouth that I didn’t have enough grace or forgiveness to say myself.


I told Laje that he was playing with God...taunting him...by his actions, and that this was a very dangerous game to play. I told him that I was going to pray that God would show him that He is a living God, and a powerful God. I would pray that, in the next few weeks, Laje would experience God’s power either through His punishment or through His forgiveness.

As I encouraged Laje to turn his life over to God, he responded that he's been too rebellious...that he's done too many bad things. I explained to him, that in God's eyes, he and I are the same...both have sinned and fallen far short of His glory. But He wants more than anything to gather us up back to himself...to be our Father once again. I explained the parable of the prodigal son...how the father went running out to meet his son who had rejected him and squandered his life on bad living. God wants Laje to be his son so much that His sent His own son to die for us. I asked Laje to imagine that the police had caught him and that a judge had sentenced him to ten years in jail (Laje knows about jail from many first-hand experiences). I asked him to imagine what he would feel if I went to the judge and told him to send me to jail instead of Laje! What would he do with the freedom that I had granted him by taking his sentence on myself? This is the heart of Jesus' redemption.

The most amazing thing began to happen as I talked to Laje. Almost a half an hour went by, and, slowly, his countenance changed from the street punk that no one crosses to a lost and confused little boy. I told him that it didn't take much to become God's son...he only had to ask forgiveness for his life of rebellion and accept Jesus' sacrifice in place of his own. I told him that God loves him with all of His huge heart and wants to be the father he never had.

Laje told me that he tried to reform once, but the church people never trusted him. I told him that God didn't care about his earrings, or his tattoos, or his gangster clothes...all He requires is Laje's heart!

After listening for a long while, Laje looked like he was ready to take off. I held out my hand, and when he reached out to shake it, I wouldn't let go. I looked in his eyes and said "Don't wait any longer, Laje. God's waiting for you with his arms open wide. Your entire eternity depends on what you decide this week. Come back on Thursday so that we can help you decide." Once I let go, Laje took off...he didn't even wait for the glass of water that he had originally come to demand!


On Thursday, the sun went down and, as 9:00 rolled around, we prepared to close up the Micah House as usual. Just as we began to do this, Laje came around the corner and stopped at our front door! Some of the guys were nervous as I shooed them off to bed that I would be alone with Laje on the streets after 9:00. But Laje didn’t come to cause trouble, he came to keep talking. This time, he opened up to me about his struggles with addiction; how he tried to give up drugs but just couldn’t do it. We talked about the spiritual side of addiction. I explained to him that will-power is not enough to break the cycle—he needs to give it over to God first and let Him help. We talked until after 10, and before he left, I promised to lend him some books the next day that might help him.

On Friday, another surprise, Laje showed up, not in his gangster clothes, but in normal, everyday attire. I gave him a book by Neal Andersen called “Venzamos esta conducta adictiva”—"Let’s Defeat this Addictive Conduct”—which approaches addiction from a Christian perspective.

I don't know why I go into so much detail...maybe to share with you that sometimes even break-ins and thefts have God’s good purposes behind them. Maybe Laje will become a great man of God who will reach back into the gangster community and win lives for God. All I know is that, for the next month, I have to pray that Laje will see the power of the living God in his life.

By the way, Laje’s given name is Juan Carlos. I think it’s time that he put his street name to rest forever.

Please pray with me!

Your brother in Christ,

Michael