We live in a strange, mixed up, dangerous world, a world where people with serious issues decide to take out those issues on innocent people.
Still, some people would rather play the proverbial ostrich, sticking their head in the sand in the hope that if they can’t see the attacker, the attack won’t happen.
Sadly, most of the time, sticking your head in the sand doesn’t protect anyone but the attacker. Although, on occasion, someone, by mere chance or the grace of God (depending on your point of view), does manage to survive an attack. That’s what today’s story is about. Joseph Mackinnon writes,
“I started to begin to preach, and all of a sudden, from my left-hand side, I saw him move from the back to the front of the church, and he set up in the front corner of the church and smiled at me,” [Pastor Glenn] Germany told WTAE-TV. “All of a sudden, I just saw a gun pointing right at me. And at that point, all I could try to do is run for cover.”
Footage of the incident shows the gunman, identified by police as 26-year-old Bernard Junior Polite, take aim at the pastor, then allegedly attempt to pull the trigger. Pennsylvania State Police indicated the firearm “failed to discharge.”
“I’m thankful to God that I’m still here, because he definitely pulled the trigger,” said Germany.
The pastor told WPXI-TV, “You heard him shoot it. God jammed the gun so the bullet didn’t come out.”
The gunman’s trigger pull was met with neither a thunderclap nor a gunshot, but rather the heroic charge of the church’s deacon, Clarence McCallister.
As McCallister closes in on Polite from the rear, the video shows the would-be shooter attempt to get a clear view of Germany, who leaped behind a podium for cover. However, before the gunman can line up a shot, McCallister tackles him, gripping him tightly until Germany can wrest the gun out of his control.
I’m thankful that the deacon was able to intervene to prevent Polite from having another chance to take a shot. Pastor Germany has the opportunity to preach again many more Sundays.
But this leads us back to the headline of this article: Why you should hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
You don’t want to live your life walking around paranoid. You don’t want to automatically assume that everyone is always trying to kill you all of the time. That’s a miserable way to live, and living like that can cause you to live treat people in such a way that it causes friction between you and other people. You don’t want to live with an awful expectation that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
On the flip side, though, you do need to be prepared in case something horrible like this situation does happen in your presence. You want to be able to intervene so that God doesn’t have to.
Hope people will all be good, but be ready in case one of them isn’t.
That’s what sheepdogs and other legal gun owners do.
