Cousins

I'm home for the weekend.
Sitting here minding my own business.
The doorbell rings.
I have no idea.
I mean, I am not expecting anyone, but tenants
might be.
Or maybe the neighbors called the police again, even
though there haven't been any interactions since the last time
the police were called some weeks ago.

It's Anthony's cousin and a friend. Now, I KNOW by
now that kid knows what's going on and that they don't
live here anymore. What does he want? I know this kid
well, he turned 18 not long ago, he was brought up in
hellish conditions and yes, he is definitely a product
of his upbringing. Drugs, pot, theft. That's his life.


I have some sympathy for the kid because his mother
didn't do anything to raise him right. She is a thief
and is currently in jail. She is also a meth user, again,
the kid hasn't really been brought up in an atmosphere that
would nuture a life with morals, ethics and respect for
fellow man.

This conversation didn't get beyond my gate, I was not
letting him in. Not even into the back yard.

Remember, I said he is a thief. He has a bag full of stuff.
All kinds of electronics. I knew it was stolen without him
telling me. I wanted none of it. I was nice to him, didn't
try to start getting into his face, it wouldn't have done any
good at all. He needs intervention in a big way and it's going
to happen on it's own.

We talked for a while. I just wasn't going to budge, no, I don't
want anything you have. So, what is this kid doing with his life?
Well, first off, he was as high as a kite. He was obviously stoned
or on drugs. He pulls out a scale. "Selling weed?". I had a scale
when I was young, yes, I sold marijuana when I was a teenager. I don't
talk about it much because I don't particularly think it was the greatest
period of my life and certainly nothing to be proud of.

But that's also why I can have empathy with the kid. I know what he's
going through. I've been there and done all of that. I broke into houses;
I sold drugs and weed; I was living a sordid, even evil lifestyle: I knew
it then and I know it now. I was into destroying people's homes, cars and
physical body. I didn't care and that was that. How I EVER made it through
that and OUT of that into the life I am living now, I will never know. Oh,
wait a minute, I DO know: the intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ. I say
that with all seriousness, that intervention happened 27 years ago and I still
stand by it.

But, having empathy does not equate to encouraging the lifestyle. He'll need
to be at Hell's gates, undoubtedly, before anything can happen. That's where I was
at when I gave it all up and turned to the Lord. After we talked awhile, he asked
if I could give him a ride. Yes, to be honest, I did. Get him out of the neighborhood
and away from my house. He isn't ready for the kind of help I can give him. He isn't there
yet. I don't know where he is at internally/the heart, I just know he isn't there yet.

So, I took him to an intersection that is all of 2 miles away, that is, apparently,
where he is living with yet another cousin. This particular family lines has a LOT
of people in it. I know this from personal experience - 6 years of it.

Something is always going on around here. Always. I'm not about to say that all of it is good, either, with all these tenants and the junk that can occur. I'm just saying that there never seems to be a lack of "excitement", if you can call it that.