Imagine being a basketball coach and having a supposed 16-year-old approach you, claiming he was a homeless refugee from Haiti. What would you do? I know what I would have done: I would have instantly taken him into my home. And that’s exactly what Permian High (Odessa, Texas) varsity basketball coach, Danny Wright, did. But little did he know who this man really was…
The student called himself Jerry Joseph, but his real name is Guerdwich Montimere, a 22-year-old man from Haiti. Turns out Montimere used to play high school basketball when he lived in Florida, and he was really good, too…I mean really good. So good in fact that when he was playing in an AAU tournament in Arkansas some of the coaches from Florida who were present recognized him and swore that he was the same kid they remembered, so much so that one coach, Louis Vives, even said, “I would bet my paycheck on it.”
Vives was right - Jerry Joseph was in fact 22-year-old Guerdwich Montimere.
When I first read this article I want to tell you my initial honest thoughts. You can judge me if you want, but they were in my mind and in my heart so I’m just going to be honest with you. So, here’s what I thought:
- The guy is a flat out liar.
- The guy has no soul, taking advantage of a kind-hearted coach who housed him and wanted to adopt him!
- The guy deserves everything he gets, from his arrest to his being stripped of all his achievements at Permian High.
I continued to think this about him until some Scripture verses came to my mind. It was then that I remembered how much our Lord Jesus hates hypocrisy. You see, just like Montimere, there was a time in my life when I put on a false identity, lied to everyone, and used people to serve my purposes. And guess when that time was…High School.
High school seems to be that time where teens are still searching for their identity, and many have no idea who they are. Therefore, in order to find acceptance amongst others they become anyone they have to be. For acceptance among their parents and Sunday school teachers teens become Super-Christian; in order to be accepted by their boyfriends, girls cross every sexual boundary they have set; and to stay in the “in crowd,” teens will become mean, dishonest, disobedient, immodest, and immoral.
The more I thought about it the more I realized I was just like Montimere. And the more I realized I was just like Montimere the less I held onto my he “deserves everything he gets” attitude. Funny, when it’s other people who do something wrong we want justice, but when it’s we who do something wrong we want mercy. So, I have two conclusions/applications to draw from this news story.
- The happiest people on the planet are those who truly know who they are. If you are a Christian you are a servant of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:1; Gal. 1:1) and find your identity in Him. When trying to be like someone you no longer have to copy the celebrity of the day, but the living Son of God (Eph. 5:1)
- Always remember mercy when you are demanding justice, because one day someone will be seeking to bring you to justice and you will definitely be praying they will give you mercy. That is why Habakkuk, after he had demanded justice from God, made this statement: “In wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2).
I guess the moral of the story is that you should take off the mask and come clean while you still can before it’s too late and someone takes it off for you. No one makes a fool of God, for He has promised to “be sure your sins will find you out” (Num. 32:23). And when/if that day comes you will be begging for mercy while justice is being delivered, so learn to give it now to others while they are experiencing their own justice.
I’m just being Frank with you…
Pastor Frank
