I shouldn’t be surprised, yet still I am…

We went over to my Mothers house tonight to swim, she lives in an apartment complex. A lady came around asking if we had seen anyone matching a certain description. we told her he was in the weight room. over the course of an hour or so a fight ensued where 3 more “thugs” came out, and one was literally throwing her around. She kept going back into it… which brings on a certain inner turmoil, but we will get into that in a little bit. So… I went out and asked… is there a problem? the guys walked off and left the woman who came into the pool area and into the bathroom. when she came out i asked if she wanted me to call the police. she said no… she would deal with it herself. I did not have my cell phone with me or I would have already done it by then. 2 other people came out of the weight-room and into the pool area after she left. I asked them to call the police and explained and the one person… A FEMALE no less… who should be the most outraged that someone would do this to another woman… was like “we really don’t want to interfere… its their conversation”

OH MY FRIGGIN GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! first of all… I did not know throwing someone around was conversation… second of all… WHAT OUT OF THIS FRIGGIN PLANET APATHY!!!!!!!!!!!!! later i walked by and advised that I hope it will never be “just HER conversation”… and if it ever is… I hope someone is there that does care, who does want to interfere.

Then one of the “Thugs” come out and walk past me and asks me if there is a problem… I said yeah… I see a woman being thrown around… that’s definitely a problem. he was like… “That’s what happens to people who don’t mind their own business” so I was like… maybe we should get the police to not mind their business… and he walked off.

This brings in me many questions now.

1: Does the woman deserve it? she turned down help, and walked back into it. I know no one deserves to be treated like that, but she was practically asking for it. Being thrown around helplessly by someone bigger and stronger. but then if I stepped in to defend her, would that make me just as bad as the criminals i would be throwing? Its kinda like in trigun…you want to free the butterfly, but you don’t want to hurt the spider, but if you free all the butterflies, the spider starves and you have indeed killed him instead.

2: Should I just stay inside my own house and mind my business while the world destroys itself? It is sooooo very tempting sometimes. to just say you know what world… your headed to hell. I mean it… this path your going leads straight there… you might be blind to it… but trust me… it is… so you know what I am done trying to stop you… want to go to hell? then go.

3:Should I go out and help? But the stronger part of me says… no… they can be saved… they can change, they deserve to know… the deserve help… all of them. the victims, the criminals, they all need help… and all deserve it the same amount. Jesus died for all of them.

4: If I should help… do I go about it by praying and petitioning God alone? I know that praying can bring about miracles… no doubt, no doubt whatsoever. but is that the only way I should be active?

5: Or should I take up arms against a sea of troubles? Should I go out and be a physical presence? should I take a bodily stand for what is right? defend the defenseless against the aggressor, pray of course but back it up with action? I don’t know… God I am sure will tell me though…

I am just shocked… first time I think i have ever seen anything like this specifically I think… oh I have seen abuse… sure… but not since I have been big enough to do anything about it… the only question remains… what is it I need to do.

What do you want on your tombstone?

I know, I know… pepperoni and cheese right? but I am serious… what is it, when we die we want people to say of us? he was a good father? a good friend? what? see this is a very important question because, as John Lennon put it, ” life is what happens while we’re to busy making other plans”. We have to live LIFE in a way that will lead to that end… we cannot wait till it is time to die and become a good father, brother, friend, neighbor. we must live a LIFE full of it. Think about it for a little while… what do you want on your tombstone? are you living in a way that will get it there?

I want to be known as a good husband, a good father, a loving person, and one who helps. Let me know what you think… those who know me of course.

1Corinthians 9:19 – 27  For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;  To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.  To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.  And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.