There was a day when I did not recognize a pharmacy charge on my credit card from a pharmacy I had not used in over a year, since a move to a different neighborhood. It took a bit of effort to track down the particular store and, once identified, it turned out my card had actually been used at least a half dozen times in the last year, all by the same person, from the same pharmacy. Since it was not local to my town, I thought about who I knew from that community and I was able to identify the user, although the pharmacy would not confirm an identity and advised me only to call the sheriff’s office. The woman I identified had been in Titus 2’s residential program at one time and it was possible I had paid for a prescription at some point st a lication near me. I faced a dilemma. Stop the charges with the pharmacy, write off the amount, which amounted to less than $100, call in law enforcement for fraudulent use of a credit card or contact the woman I suspected. As I considered my options I had a very distinct Word from the LORD God: “You hold the stone.” The essence of that message seemed to be, by the letter of the law you have been wronged. You have the legal right to involve law enforcement. My next thought was, “But then there’s Matthew 18.” Should I go to the person I suspected and ask why and how she had been able to use my card? I didn’t want to be throwing a stone that could complicate her life significantly, maybe not as seriously as the consequences faced by the woman caught in adultery, about whom Jesus was asked whether stoning was the proper punishment under the law. . And how did that go?
I called the woman’s parent, whose number was the only contact I had. I told him briefly that I needed to talk to her before law enforcement might have to be involved in a situation. He called her at work and she called me back immediately, left work and went straight to the pharmacy. As we talked on speaker in front of the pharmacist it was clear they had retained my card on her file and in the absence of insurance had simply billed me when she got refills. She was never asked to pay and never asked about it being “free.” The pharmacy corrected their file, I wrote off the charges. She went back to work. Case closed. Don’t assume you know all the facts when you’re getting ready to throw a stone. Have you asked the person? Have you pursued justice more than loving mercy and are you walking with God humbly enough to hear His guidance? CBB 9/20/26
“God works, too, through the evil others inflict upon us……..The pain we have experienced, whether by sickness or human tragedy or by the intentional or unintentional acts of others, can become a blessing in the process of our own growth and a blessing we can extend to others. It is up to us to accept these unlikely stones and to make of them building blocks of a worthy life edifice. God wills it to be so, because God is on the side of goodness. It is up to us, however, to decide whether we want to cooperate with God and goodness, or whether we will choose to retreat into a cave of self-pity or recrimination and resentment.” (p 36-37)