Believing is Seeing

There was a small West Texas town that was typical America. Everything was fine until one day when someone decided to open a bar in that small town. The local church was outraged by this new business and set out to have it closed. They picketed, put up flyers, and even had weekly prayer vigils where they would pray that God would destroy the bar.

Well, one day it happened. Lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground! The bar owner decided to seek justice for what had been done so he got a lawyer. The lawyer filed suit against the congregation because they had prayed the bar would be burned down and it did. Well the church, not to be outdone, also hired a lawyer and the battle was on. The bar’s lawyer argued that the church was responsible because they had prayed for the destruction of the bar and their prayers had been answered. The church’s lawyer shot back that it was an act of nature, not a result of the church. The church lawyer said it was purely coincidental and the church could not be held liable.

The judge was about to retire to his chambers to make his decision, but before he left, he looked at the two lawyers and the crowd in the courtroom split neatly down the middle - churchgoers on one side and bargoers on the other. (There were probably some that weren’t sure which side to stand on!) He shook his head and said, “This will be the hardest decision I have ever had to make. I am not sure what to make about all of this. But I am sure about one thing. The bar owner believes and the church doesn’t!”

By the way, that is not only a cool story, its true! Sound like your culture?