IN CHURCH ABOUT A WEEK LATER, a friend of mine, Victor Filaye, a Nigerian dentist, walked up to me. “I was praying for you this morning,” he said. “God impressed upon me that I needed to pray for a Gamaliel for you.”
Gamaliel was a man who lived during the time of Jesus’s apostles and the early church. When the apostles were on trial for heresy and about to be railroaded to a guilty verdict, Gamaliel reasoned with their accusers.
“Thank you, Victor,” I said.
The next morning, I was walking down the E-Ring corridor, when I glanced into the open door of an office. A man in there was in the middle of a conversation and as I passed, he happened to turn and look out.
“General Boykin?”
I stopped and turned around. The man had stepped out into the hall.
“Yes,” I said.
“I’m Joe Schmitz, the Department of Defense inspector general.”
That knocked me for a loop. Instantly, I wondered whether he knew I had asked to see him.
Schmitz smiled. “General, I just want to assure you that I have read every word of your rebuttal and that I will ensure you are treated fairly,” he said.
I could hardly believe what I’d just heard. As I watched Schmitz walk away down the corridor, I thought: That’s Gamaliel.