What happened to Christmas spirit?
Crosswalk Caution
Today I heard screaming as soon as I stepped out of my van in the parking garage. That is not a sound you want to hear in a parking garage. I could see through the windows as I went down the stairs. Three female students were crossing the street (in the crosswalk that has flashing lights to alert drivers when people are crossing) and a truck ran right into one of them. The girl was fine, but it was scary. By the time I reached them, the driver had left. He must have stopped just in time to bump the girl and cause no injuries. She assured me she was okay and her friends were with her so I headed to work.
Free Pizza
A few minutes later I heard there was free pizza and I started to talking to the stranger in front of me as we waited in line. An older gentleman approached and cut line, saying “Can I just grab something because my class starts soon?” My new friend got agitated and said, “Let’s all just cut in line.” I expressed how strange this day was starting and he said he witnessed someone else get hit a few days ago on another street close by and the person actually bounced. They were not so lucky and were bleeding and their legs were broken.
Careless Drivers
About two weeks ago I watched as a young man in a nice white car seemed to have zero parking skills and ran right into another car, dented it all up and left a streak of rubbed off paint, and then drove away. And yes, I am wondering at this point why these things keep happening in front of me.
I watched a different man in a different town roll down his truck window and yell and curse at a car with elderly people driving with a handicapped tag. The elderly people accidentally got stuck in the intersection when the light changed, and this other man was super angry because he couldn’t go across when he wanted to go across. I understand this is frustrating, but I see this happen all of the time. Maybe this guy doesn’t get out much, and it really ticked him off. He continued to yell, beep, and throw his hands out of his window toward the car.
There was nothing the elderly couple could do to fix this. Meanwhile, I’m watching a little kid in the backseat of the car play with a doll. After the light turned green, and we all started to go, I watched another guy drive up next to the maniac at the next light, roll down his window, smile, and seem to tell him that he agreed with his behavior.
What Happened to Christmas Spirit?
These are just a few things that I witnessed recently myself. We have probably all seen the 10 teenagers on TV, who may be charged as adults, who beat a 17-year-old classmate to death a few weeks ago in Las Vegas just around the corner from their high school. The teenagers were 13-17 years old. They were reportedly fighting over a vape pen and a pair of headphones of all things. Stupid. What keeps bothering me is the fact that there were 10 of them. 10 and additional people who videoed it, and no one stopped it or went for help.
The boy’s father said that his son who was killed was defending a smaller friend whose items had been stolen. The group stomped on him, kicked, and punched him until he was dead. And then they left him there. Not one of them called anyone to help him, not even anonymously. 8 have been arrested, 2 were still unidentified at the time of this post. All will face murder charges. All of these lives changed over a vape pen and headphones right before the holidays. It’s just ridiculous. People talk all the time about morals declining. I think we hope for the best and then are confronted with really evil behavior. You can’t excuse away stomping someone to death. I worked with middle and high school students for a long time. I don’t care how young the students were. There’s no excuse. There’s no logic in it, only hatred.
Holding Onto Hope
We don’t have to choose doom and gloom over hope and happiness. It’s possible to see reality and evil, and hold on to hope and what is right. We have to or we won’t make it. I can only imagine how hard it is for police officers, social workers, those in the medical field, and others who see first hand, day after day in every season, how awful people can really be. I know elementary teachers who have had to report their students own family members for sexual abuse.
There is no doubt we have a mental health crisis in this country, and we hear a lot about it. But there’s way more than that. This evilness that we see in the actions of so many goes beyond what most of us think of when we think of mental health support. There has to be consequences for evil actions, or we will only see more and more of these things taking place. An epic battle of good vs. evil may come to mind, but there is a battle on a small scale inside every single person that bleeds out into society.
All this craziness has me trying to figure out just what happened to Christmas spirit. I’m ready to stay inside for a bit and appreciate peace more than ever. Happy Holidays y’all.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13
