Christ's followers don't let devilish barriers stop them.

A man named Hobie changed the way I think about broken people. We were in our church's Sunday morning Bible class, studying Jesus' encounter with a troubled and intimidating homeless man (Mark 5 and Luke 8).

The Bible's description is graphic: "For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs." He was amazingly strong—"for he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day … he would cry out and cut himself with stones."

We tried to imagine walking up to a naked man so tormented that he would cut himself, so powerful that he snapped chains, so distressed that he would bellow his anger and anguish, whether anyone was there to listen or not.

"Not exactly a ministry opportunity you want to involve the kids in," quipped one young mom.

We discussed the confrontation between Jesus ...