Repaying Evil With Blessing

Ed and I have been involved in Motorcycle Ministry for many years. We attend secular rallies to bring a Christian presence to these often boisterous and sometimes even decadent events. We go to where the lost and hurting souls are even if it is in the midst of Satan's camp.One of the "services" that we would often provide is a coffee tent where we would provide coffee and/or hot chocolate to the other bikers, often late at night or first thing in the morning, free of charge to those who needed an alternative to drinking too much or who needed something to warm them up when the night air turned chill.

We never charged for our coffee or hot chocolate but at one particular event the grateful participants insisted on setting up a donation jar. In order to get permits for these events, the organizers need to donate any extra funds, over and above their expenses, to a charity organization. We agreed to the donation jar but decided amongst ourselves that at the end of the rally we would donate the contents to that particular clubs charity.

Sunday morning the donation jar was quite full. Ed was manning the tent that morning when a young Hell's Angel member walked over, intent on establishing his reputation. As his friends looked on from a short distance, the young man snarled at Ed and said "I'm going to steal that jar of money." Ed smiled at him pleasantly and said, "I'm sorry, but you can't steal it." "And just how do you plan to stop me, old man?" the young man questioned defiantly. Ed smiled again and held the jar out. "You can't steal it because I'm going to give it to you."

The Hell's Angel, with the wind visibly taken out of his sails, abruptly turned and made a valiant attempt at nonchalantly striding away - without the money jar.

1 Peter 3:9
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

1 Peter 3:13
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?