"They'll be okay. Let's leave."
I once resentfully spoke these cowardly words to my paramedic-in-training best friend Mitch. He was concerned about two frightfully drunk girls fighting with each other in the water. My natural instinct (cowardice) told me to leave them be. Mitch wouldn't have that. He spent the next twenty minutes physically keeping one girl form entering the water. She wanted to drown herself in the lake and her friend was hysterical and accusatory. At one point, the girl who seemingly wished to die accused her friend of trying to kill her. It was a painful, ongoing struggle that ended with a police and ambulance response. I stood, watching. Another bystander had called the emergency dispatch, so I did not even have that to do that. I chose the path of the mouse that day, but I swore that night that I would never let myself do that again.
My friend Mitch excels in such an immediate situation, where a small group of people are immediately affected by a dangerous situation. Under pressure I tend to collapse. My mind explores all the possible consequences: assault charges, getting into fights, getting arrested, and the end result is stillness. I have become notoriously talented at not doing things.
For my part in this world I go to Mexico and such places to do humanitarian aid work (Sorry, Searcy). This is a planned event that I can think over again and again and decide to follow through with.
I am comfortable with this, because I believe that they need help. If I did not know that they needed help, I would not go.
I am aware of other world issues as well, such as controversial Middle Eastern Wars, poor slaughterhouse working conditions in the USA, and many other worldwide travesties. As a Christian I believe that God has a plan for my life as well as every else. I believe that this plan includes working to help with the world's problems; to make the world a better place.
Since one person cannot participate in solving (let alone on their own) every problem, God opens doors and clears the path for people to do certain things for their fellow man. This might include an opportunity for joining a missionary trip in a church, or stumbling across two troubled girls at risk of drowning at the beach.
Monday, March 10, 2008
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