Saul and Myron

When I investigated insurance fraud in Texas, periodically I would take a trainee into an appointment where I would take a recorded statement of someone. On this particular day, I took a kid right out of college named Myron. Myron was green as a gourd in the insurance industry and in taking statements, and soaking wet, he may have weighed 140 pounds. I was scheduled to take the recorded statement of an insured that had turned in a claim reporting that his truck was stolen. What our insured didn’t know was that I knew where his truck was, and I knew what he had done with it. But I was giving him the opportunity to tell the truth. Our insured was 5’ 10” and was a “no-necker” – meaning he worked out all the time and didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. He walked into the office with a protein drink, tank top and shorts. His biceps were as large as both of my legs combined. He was bald and had a goatee. He strolled to the chair I directed him to, and I started sizing him up and formulating my game plan. I sat across the desk from him making sure to note where the panic button was. In the event that something should go wrong, I could push the panic button, and theoretically, people from the back of the office would run to my rescue…theoretically. Myron was sitting to my right near the door. The insured had a barbed wire tattooed around one of bicep, and he had another tat on his other arm that I could not quite make-out.


I began taking the statement in a conversational manner looking for how he would answer my questions when he was relaxed. Where did he look? What was his body language? What words did he use and the pattern of them? And as I was asking questions, inside my mind I was snickering thinking that this guy could really hurt me…he was HUGE! Double-checking the location of the panic button, I continued on into his history. Come to find out, our insured had been in the Special Forces and that tat I couldn’t make out…yeah, that was a Special Forces tat. At that point, I stopped worrying about the panic button because I knew he could break every bone in my body before I got to the panic button, and as I glanced at Myron, well, I knew he would be of no help. So, I continued on, and the insured provided great details…they were lies, but they were in great detail.

Fortunately, I was given instructions not to confront. My instructions were to give him an opportunity to tell his little story of lies, and I did. Then I cut him loose.

As I look back on that experience had I had to confront this beast of a man, I think I could relate to how Ananias felt when God told him to go meet with Saul. With the nervous giggles, “Um, God, do you see how big this guy is? Do you know how bad to the bone he is? He can break every bone in my body before I could reach the panic button, and Myron, here; he ain’t gonna be much help in my defense.” The other part of that would be, “God, are you sure you want me to talk to him because he’s not really on your side. I think you could find someone better suited for the job…really.”

Think about the person who scares you the most. For some it would be going to maximum security prison. For some it would be going to the bad part of town. For some it is talking to the person in the next cubicle or that person in your family. Now, God tells you to go to them and share God’s words with them. That is how Ananias felt, but God said “go,” and Ananias did. Did you? The results for Ananias were a story for the ages. He was able to see the hand of God change Saul to Paul.

Then there was the other question… “God, why him?” So many times people get so distracted, especially in church, with what other people are doing or not doing that they lose their effectiveness, lose sight of the dream God has given them. Too often people are concerned with how they aren’t included in a certain clique or how this person was preferred over another to trust God to handle it all. IT AIN’T YO’ BABY TO ROCK IF SOMEONE ELSE IS DOING SOMETHING! You are responsible for yourself and your obedience to God and your relationship to God. PUT YOUR BIG GIRL PANTIES OR BIG BOY BRITCHES ON and GET OVER YOURSELF. Why Saul? Why not Saul? Why Stephanie? Why not Stephanie? Focus on what is important…on WHO is important. Be obedient. Follow where He leads you, and don't worry about what the others are doing and not doing. I promise you won’t regret it.