12/2/13 Miguel 21
Please
pray for Miguel, 21. Of all the people I
have met on the streets, he is possibly the most likely to be or to cause
another of Chicago’s homicide statistics.
He was walking at a park, where I stopped after work and was about to
reach out to him to initiate a Gospel conversation, when suddenly he doubled
over to spit up. “Hey man, are you all
right” I asked. When he finally got
himself together, he told me he had just been jumped by six or seven teenage
gangbangers, who thought he was in another gang, and had been punched in the
gut before being able to break free and run.
He was clearly pretty shaken up, but calmed down enough for me to ask “I
was just about to ask you a very important question, though I’m not sure if you’re
in a good state of mind to talk right now, but then again, maybe this is the
best time.” “Go ahead, what is it?” he said, very interested and attentive. “I’m just wondering what you think happens
after this life. I mean, it’s obvious,
we’re not guaranteed another day of life.
What just happened to you could happen any day. So has this happened to
you before?” He admitted it had happened
often, and that he had been involved in a gang, but had moved away for some
months to try to make a fresh start in life.
He was calm and rational, but just then saw past me to a young man walking
down the sidewalk and mistook him for one of the perpetrators. Instantly his demeanor changed, he was filled
with rage and ran up in the young man’s face, accusing him of being in the
group that had jumped him. The
bewildered young man was very obviously not the thuggish type, being
well-dressed, carrying a very expensive camera, and looking like he just came
from a college class. Miguel proceeded
to work himself into a frenzy, screaming at the young man’s face, trying to
goad him into a fight. I had to
physically insert myself between them to protect the guy, and when Miguel ran
to his car to get something out of the trunk I told the young man to leave
because Miguel could only be going for a weapon. We took off in opposite directions and Miguel
went after him, confronting him at a nearby busy intersection in front of
dozens of rush-hour cars. Finally he let
him go and came back, quickly calming down to where he was before as I worked
to convince him the guy had been an innocent bystander. We talked some more about the Gospel when
suddenly he did it all over again, only this time with two middle-aged
fast-walkers who were passing by. They
did their best to ignore him and keep on walking. Again he calmed down afterward, but I could
finally see that he was unstable and not able to focus on what I was telling
him. I think what I saw was an extreme
form of pride instilled in Miguel from the gang culture, a pride that
absolutely under no circumstances will allow oneself to be violated or
disrespected, which leads to the enraged revenge killings that end up on the
evening news here in Chicago. I didn’t
want to end up there myself so I took off, feeling helpless to do anything but
pray for Miguel and ask for your prayers for him as well.
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