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What’s Going on Here?

Mart De Haan Posted by Mart DeHaan
March 30th, 2011
28 Comments » 

Photo by: Chili68

Store manager: What are you doing here?

Stranger: Why do you need to know?

Store manager: I’m making it my business to ask, why are you here? What are you going to do before your leave?

Stranger: I’m here to do my father’s business.

Store manager: Who’s your father?

Stranger: You’ll know before I leave.

Store manager: How will I know?

Stranger: Because it’s my business to show you…

With that much of a storyline, let’s create some possible scenarios. What do you think might be going on here? Maybe it would help to think in the way that prosecutors and defense attorneys come up with different scenarios to explain given facts to defend their side of a case. Am not setting a trap :-)…


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28 Responses to “What’s Going on Here?”

  1. scout1 says:
    March 30, 2011 at 8:37 am

    Store Manager: Can you tell me your business?

    Stranger: I can but I don’t know if you’ll believe me.

    Store Manager: Sure, I will!

    Stranger: I’m here to let you know that God loves you and that you need a Savior. He wants to fix your relationship and guide your life according to His plans because they are the best. You and I need His forgiveness from our sins. Would you like to meet your Father and Savior?

    Store Manager: Oh, your one of those! Well, I just had 3 other guys in here saying about the same thing. I appreciate you comin’ in but I think I’ll just wait. I tired of being scammed.

    Stranger: Well, that’s o.k. I’ll be around. Maybe you’ll see something different in me that you haven’t see in the others.

    The stranger goes home and hits his knees and prays for the store manager and asks the Holy Spirit to convict him. He also asks for a clean testimony. But, one of the things that God does is put a situation in the strangers life that the store manager knows about; a situation that will test the strangers testimony.

  2. foreverblessed says:
    March 30, 2011 at 9:39 am

    The stranger could be Jesus, as He came to earth to also show the Father.
    And the store manager could be the pharasees and other scribes, as they were the manager of the synagoge of the Jews.
    A stranger comes in, that is Jesus, they need to check, because it is there duty.

    I was hesitant to think that the stranger could be me, can I show who the Father is? Never thought of that, more in the line of: show who Jesus is. And Jesus showed who the Father was.
    But this thinking drives my mind in too many bends, like &@.
    Are all of you thinking too much now as well, not many have commented yet!

    Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

  3. foreverblessed says:
    March 30, 2011 at 9:41 am

    Scout1, “But, one of the things that God does is put a situation in the strangers life that the store manager knows about; a situation that will test the strangers testimony.”
    Can you tell some more about what you want to say there, it takes too much thinking to find that out too!

  4. dust says:
    March 30, 2011 at 9:58 am

    Hi everyone.

    This may be off topic, i don’t know.
    Jesus died to save us from ourselfs.
    My enemy is me.
    Sin is: i want to do what i want to do when i want to do it.
    Father God creates,
    Lord Jesus reveales,
    Holy Sprit impliments,

    I think i may be thinking too much, my head is starting to hurt.

    God bles you all

  5. Mart De Haan says:
    March 30, 2011 at 10:04 am

    Try thinking about the possibilities of what could be going on here first–just on a human level– without trying to bring in the Bible, until we get a few scenarios on the table.

  6. SFDBWV says:
    March 30, 2011 at 10:27 am

    What is really strange here is that this morning I started to write about Luke 20: 9, but decided not to as the post began to drift too far from the topic (Last topic). So I deleted and went on with the mornings chores.

    Jesus was plainer than one might think in His parables; of course we have the blessing of hindsight as well as His Spirit to aid in our understanding of His comments.

    Whereas before the coming of Jesus into the world, the Jew were the people whom God had given the task of worshiping and correctly exposing the nature of God through His Law, they were the managers of the family business.

    When the owner of the family business sent Jesus His Son to condemn the managers of mismanagement, they had Him killed, or so they thought.

    We are now the managers of the family business, the business of demonstrating the nature of God to a world filled with disillusionment and unbelief.. It now is our responsibility to answer to the owners Son how well we are managing things.

    We can be just as guilty of nailing Him to that cross as did the first managers. The difference being that we have way more information then did the previous managers. Also that we will be given bonuses according to merit, because we escaped getting laid off as a gift from the owner.

    Steve

  7. scout1 says:
    March 30, 2011 at 11:39 am

    foreverblessed -I was just trying to continue the story that Mart had presented to us this morning. I was hoping that some of you would continue the story. Like Mart said earlier, taking the situation through different turns and twists to see we may learn!

  8. poohpity says:
    March 30, 2011 at 11:56 am

    It would seem as any store manager has the right to ask when someone comes into a store the reason the stranger came into the store. In other words, “can I help you find what you are looking for?”. The stranger has to admit the intention for coming into the store. It maybe to size up the store to rob it, or maybe it is a competitor who is going to open another store and wants to see what it has to offer.

    The stranger tells the store owner that he is there on family business so as to still evade the question of why he is there so the store manger still has no answer to his initial question. The store owner has now been lead in another direction to finding out who the father is still not explaining why he came into the store in the first place. Obviously no one goes into a store without the intent of obtaining something.

    The store manager tries to find out why he should trust the stranger who he knows nothing about or why he is there except to do his fathers business. The table has now turned and the stranger relays that his business there is to show the store manager which was the original question; “What are you doing here?” to show him about his father.

  9. poohpity says:
    March 30, 2011 at 11:58 am

    So the stranger did not come into the store to get but to give.

  10. annalisa says:
    March 30, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    Good Morning! This is quite the brain-buster.Well without using Biblical Scripture & to think like a Prosecutor I would simply say a Prosecutor’s job is to convict an “evil doer” based on evidence, often is circumstantial AND twisting to actual intent to serve the prosecution. He/she would not be apt to side with any defense in the matter of the unseen (without physical proof), rather he/ she would be looking to convict on the basis of guilt (as presented by actual evidence) or inventing a charge of guilt.

    A Defense, you would think, has the easier job of it by just explaining away plausible explanations. AND generally one is presumed innocent until PROVEN guilty (but we all KNOW what usually happens when you plant seeds- especially if the Prosecution is watering them)

    So now it becomes a little clear to me, in that, even though the “burden of proof” relies on the Prosecution it doesn’t really often play out that way. In fact, its usually the defense who must jump through hoops & leap hurdles to prove his innocence. In fact, without a STRONG defense often physical proof (but yes imparting doubt too) otherwise your found guilty & convicted by the (legal) system.

    So what becomes clearer to me now whether it was the direction of this scenario or not is that we as brothers & sister in the body of Christ Jesus gifted with the Holy Spirit, have to turn up the metaphoric volume as the defense/defenders of The Word.

    I don’t know my brain is in knots after thinking about this. Perhaps you think I’m nutz.

    Of the topic, was walking in the park yesterday with my niece, found a coconut on a rock along the Hudson River (nyc) I love coconut, didn’t think anything of it & picked it up…a man got out of a car & frantically asked if I had found it or was it mine. Stunned, for a moment I realized the age we are living in & maybe it could have been tainted (I also tasted the sap oozing from the top), I answered the man saying that I just found it there. He then told me I’d be better to leave it b/c he was a cop who has seen this many times & that it was part of a Santeria Worship. You know that keeps playing in my head even though I know I am a child of God & a follower of Jesus therefore no harm certainly the Lord knows my heart, I wasn’t genuinely partaking…. or was I?? Can’t get this out of my head, its sort of funny but its not really, I should have known better.

  11. Mart De Haan says:
    March 30, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    poohpity, and annalisa, thanks for wading into the possibilities!!

    And on the coconut, annalisa, I don’t know how you could have known better. You’re right about the Lord knowing your heart and that the One who is in you is greater than anything that is in the world. Sometimes the greatest danger is in the “fear” that “threats” leave in us. Continuing to find security in your faith is the way forward…

  12. cjaway1 says:
    March 30, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    The prosecutor would have to determine whether he had enough evidence that a crime was committed; there’s no evidence or even probable cause.

  13. oneg2dblu says:
    March 30, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    How does one spell conundrum? Let me see… take a known Christian business, RBC, put a blog site on it, Been Thinking About, where Christian’s will surely visit,and then present a scenario that sets this up, A story about a person who is a stranger, going about his father’s business,and when entering anothers place of business and being asked why he is there, answers in a parrable like form which says he will act in such a manner, that the storekeeper will know who his father is, and Oh Yeah! don’t make it biblical, and defend both sides? This is a NO Brainer!!

  14. oneg2dblu says:
    March 30, 2011 at 2:58 pm

    Wrong button… only a no brainer would try to solve it, so here goes: How is this one?
    We are the strangers, and we enter the storekeepers place of business when we respond to this site. Mart the storekeeper,wants to ask why we are here, and we if we keep to the guidelines, we do not have the liberty to answer that question, unless, we have a Common Father, who sends us out into the world for Him… and by what we do here, Mart then know who our Father is!
    But, no noe comes to the knowledge of Our Father, unless he first has a personasl realationship with Jesus Christ. That is my defense as to why I’m here, and it is also the other side, as to why Mart is here as well! :)
    Next blog topic is… Why are you here?
    Answer…to show you Who my Father is!

  15. davids says:
    March 30, 2011 at 3:28 pm

    Stranger: Why are these products priced so high?

    Store Manager: I thought I should make them expensive because they are precious.

    Stranger: Didn’t you have some guidance from the store owner? Weren’t there some rules?

    Store Manager: Yes, but you’re not the store owner, so you have nothing to say about it.

    Stranger: I know the owner; he wanted this store run in a way that everyone would be able to come get what they need. You are placing obstacles in front of them.

    Is the Store Manager running an ancient synagogue or a modern church?

  16. Bob in Cornwall England says:
    March 30, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    If I was a Barrister I would ask the stranger the same question as the shop keeper. “Who is your father?”

    The stranger implied that his actions would reveal his father.
    Then as a Barrister I would want to see the cctv footage to see if there was evidence to suggest who this father and his business is.
    If the shop is being robbed then the father’s business is theft and the son is also a thief, going about his fathers business.
    If there is no evidence of anything then who is to know what the business is about.
    But if the son helps and old person or finds money and hands it in or just smiles kindly and makes people happy then he is a good son and this implies that he and his father are honest and true.

    You see the stranger did not say “it is my business to tell you”
    He said “Because it’s my business to show you…”

    When we are out what will the judge make of our cctv footage.

    Bob

  17. Bob in Cornwall England says:
    March 30, 2011 at 3:46 pm

    Davids,

    I like your scenario.
    I failed to realise that the shop keeper was just a manager and not the owner.
    How often I have been caught on the hop when one of my bosses sons turn up.

  18. bratimus says:
    March 30, 2011 at 5:45 pm

    The stranger is the son of the store onwer.

    The store manager just doesn’t know it is the store onwers son

  19. bratimus says:
    March 30, 2011 at 6:02 pm

    To go on any further without any details into what is going to happen or what has happened. I would have to take the place of the Judge and dismiss the case and tell both prosecuter and defence there is no evidence to go to trail. case dismissed.

  20. xrgarza says:
    March 30, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    Mart, you’re a genius! This is exactly what I have been looking for, creative scenarios to be able to strike up conversations with total strangers.

    I was just thinking, there are more Christians in this world and even in America than there are other particular groups of people. But yet there are more movies, TV shows, laws etc. etc. that are being created and passed for groups other than Christians.

    It’s as if the church has fallen asleep, Mart, I don’t want to be caught slumbering, especially in these crucial days that I so believe that we are truly living in the last days.

    Mart, I am so guilty of this myself, and I don’t want to be assigned a place with the hypocrites, I want to be deliberate and intentional, yet I want to be loving and not abrasive.

    Jesus mentions this in the book of Matthew & Luke:
    Matthew 24:36-51

    The Day and Hour Unknown
    36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
    42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

    45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    Rocky

  21. xrgarza says:
    March 30, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    PS: Mart, I wrote my thoughts down before I read any of the comments made by others as to not be influenced in how to respond, then I read your request not to bring scripture in yet. Sorry

    Rocky

  22. Mart De Haan says:
    March 30, 2011 at 7:43 pm

    Rocky,
    That’s fine, I’m getting the kind of thinking I was hoping for.

    In one sense there is no right answer because, of the first point I was hoping we’d see: That words have no definite meaning without an understanding of the story behind them.

    A number of you (i.e. Steve WV) saw immediately the allusion to the Son and Father that we talked about in the previous post. (So the parallel with the parable of the tenants).

    But if we try to leave Scripture out (as some of you did), it is important to note that the store manager is not the owner.

    The stranger who comes “on his father’s business” then could either be son of the owner (coming to check on the manager), or the son of a mob boss (coming to collect protection money– or worse).

    Depending on who the father is, we can then guess at what the stranger’s business is, and what he might do before he leaves.

    If we then move to the biblical scenario, the one who comes as “a stranger” is either the son of the Father/owner in heaven, or the son of the One whose business is to steal and to destroy.

    At that point my thoughts go to personal application. How clearly and often do we think about “whether we are doing our Father’s business.”

    Didn’t want to jump in too quickly. But you showed a lot of patience and good will in playing the game with me :-).. Thank you…

    If this leads to other thoughts– or just a desire to tell me to “grow up” :-)… be my guest…

  23. saled says:
    March 30, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    I like davids scenario. But I’ll try something different.

    The stranger is sitting on the sidewalk outside the store, smoking a cigarette. The manager wants him gone, because the stranger is an intimidating looking fellow.

    Customers stop coming into the store, because they don’t like the tattoo on his neck. The manager wishes he could call the police, but they really don’t have much of a presence in his part of the city.

    When only the manager is left in the store, the stranger gets up and goes in. He holds out his hand and the two men exchange looks. Grudgingly, the manager pulls two bills out of the cash box. He knows this is only the first visit of many to come.

  24. poohpity says:
    March 30, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    Hey Mart, this is your rodeo we were just invited in to think along with you and of that I am very thankful. It has opened my eyes, ears and thoughts to grow outside the box. I would have a very hard time going into someone’s place and telling them to do anything different then they were already doing.

  25. poohpity says:
    March 30, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    This could be a real study in the personalities of the different types of answers and what their agenda is. I feel like a kid in a candy store. LOL

  26. Bob in Cornwall England says:
    March 31, 2011 at 12:26 am

    Mart,

    Why grow up when we have been instructed to be as little children in the way we trust and imitate our Father.

  27. oneg2dblu says:
    March 31, 2011 at 10:33 am

    I did not see why the manager could not also own the store, but I’m not building on this as it goes, I’m trying to stay with the original scene, of the stranger and the manager, communicating their intentions.
    This is another one not mentioned earlier… the stranger is a Follower of Christ, and was led to this store for the “soul purpose,” pun intended, to only deliver a gospel tract, that he had in his pocket. He would leave it where the manager would find it after he left!
    As far as the “kid in the candy store” is concerned., I grew up in one, so I really can relate. LOL
    I also stole some candy from a candy store, but it was not my father’s store, although it was my father’s business!

  28. Regina says:
    April 1, 2011 at 7:25 am

    Good Morning All

    Hope all is well with you. I like the picture chosen for this blog topic, Mart. Looks like a 1950’s (or 40’s)gas station. I like antique homes, cars, clothes, some jewelry, etc. Interesting blog topic, and I’m anxious to read the comments of others but wanted to share my own initial thoughts (on this topic) first.

    Mart provided this scenario…
    Store manager: What are you doing here?

    My thought: This makes me wonder where this interaction took place. The Store Manager could have been at home or some place where he did not expect to see a stranger. Tempted to look at this scenario from a Biblical perspective too…It’s kind of reminiscent of what Mary and Joseph said to Jesus when the found him, after searching for him for 3 days, in the temple and Jesus’ response to their questions. He was a little surprised that they were worried about Him (?-He’s God)and surprised that they did know where to find Him. Would say more, but I’m rushing a bit this morning.

    Stranger: Why do you need to know?
    Would be a weird question if the Store Manager is at home or anywhere besides the store.

    Store manager: I’m making it my business to ask, why are you here? What are you going to do before your leave?
    Now, the “plot thickens” as the saying goes for mystery books/movies! lol! Think the Store Manager was more curious than afraid. He seems so level-headed in his conversation with the stranger, who’s obviously in the wrong place. Think I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for later when I’ll have more time.

    Sunny and warm in Texas today (after 4 days of cloudy, cold temps)—86 D/High

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