Monday, September 20, 2010

Taking a Hit for Jesus?

I know as a kid or teen growing up I really didn’t get into many fights. I can remember just two. One was over a girl where another guy and I obviously wanted her and the reality was that our little exchange of punches meant that we both lost the girl. The other incident was more of trauma. This was when I was in Jr. High and lived at an Air Force Base that was in Montana. There was little to do besides sports and scouting. I was playing on a basketball league. There was one guy on our team, Ernie, who was the textbook definition of a bully. Everyone feared him including most of the teachers. I will never forget the day when we were practicing and he continued to be a ball hog. I hauled off and hit him in his stomach. He had this shocked look at his, showed a little bit of pain and then instead of returning the blow for some reason laughed at me and continued to play basketball. I was rather shocked that I didn’t get my butt kicked after school.

I say all of these things to give a background to my real discussion, which was why are there so many adults and kids that have real bad attitudes, tempers and anger issues. I think I spend more time and energy breaking up fights than I should. I can understand the frustration of a lot of these kids and adults who come out of really bleak circumstances and are fed up with being called names, laughed at or pushed. What I don’t understand is why someone will totally lose it over something that is totally stupid.

This week was my birthday and we had a skating outing with our New City/Barrio Nuevo group. It turned out that we had a large group of over 50 in attendance. I knew deep down inside with this many coming that something would probably happen. We actually had a few new kids and this can always cause jealousy or issues. Yet, after skating for 3 hours, nothing had taken place and everyone seemed to be happy and friends, at least for that moment. Little did I know that there was a fight brewing that was just waiting for a perfect time to erupt, like while I am driving the van and don’t have a fast place to pull over to play referee.

As I listen to a few screams and some foul talk I knew what was about to happen and then wow did the fists fly as I screamed to both teens to STOP. I can’t fathom why they didn’t pay any attention to me. So I pulled over and had to intervene with bodily force to get the one teenage boy from pelting another teenage girl. In the middle of trying to stop the battle I got punched on the side of my face. I didn’t think much about it until after I had done my usual talk with both of the perpetrators. They heard me say so often walk away, don’t respond to violence with violence or two wrongs don’t ever make a right. Yet, this doesn’t seem to have impacted them in the heat of the moment when someone has purposely said something horrible to the other person.

I ended up talking to a few others in the group to get a better handle on what had happened. After everyone cooled off I talked to the two teens. I also ended up talking to their parents/guardians. I am not sure as to what the solution is to seated anger on the inside that is over past stuff that only God can heal and give His Peace to replace. So I am still nursing my little reminder that I too have a temper that can go off at times. I am glad that God doesn’t lose his temper but uses his anger for our own good as we experience that mercy and grace that is the basis for our salvation and reconciliation to Him. Jesus is the one who took the hit for me!

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