Out of all the things in the world that make me mad, this has to be the first on the list.
My brother’s friend was going to be baptized a few weeks ago, a big step for him, whom we’ll call Kevin. Kevin came from a broken home – his parents had him out of wedlock – and he lived in a terrible neighborhood where the words “drive by” and “mugged” were common place. His dad wanted nothing to do with him, but was only concerned with his cocaine addiction. His mom had two boyfriends – she’s married now – that would put Kevin through so much verbal and emotional abuse. They would wake Kevin up in the night, tell him, “We’re going to kill you soon. Now go back to sleep.”
Now, its one thing for parents to have drug addictions and care only for themselves. It’s one thing for Kevin’s mom to be out of the house all the time at friends’ houses doing drugs. It’s one thing for both parents to not have enough money to pay for healthy food for themselves.
But let me tell you, it’s an entirely new ball game when it starts to affect kids.
And that’s when I get mad.
Adults have every right in the world to mess their lives up. It’s their life – let them do what they want. But when those choices start to affect the kid, that’s when it gets ugly.
Kids don’t get to pick their parents – the kids are stuck with whoever they’re born to. Kids don’t get to pick where they live, when they’ll go buy food, or how their life is run. Those are choices the parents have to make, but Kevin’s parents aren’t doing that.
Now, Kevin didn’t get baptized, but because he got a some bad grades in school, and that was the punishment his mom had placed on him – I’ll give her that. But after a fight between them – Kevin wasn’t completely right in this, however – his mom decided that she didn’t want anything to do with him and brought him to his dad’s. His dad wants nothing to do with the kid either, but Kevin was there, so his dad had to do something.
My dad asked Kevin’s grandpa if Kevin was safe. His words were chilling.
“As far as I’m concerned, Kevin hasn’t been safe a day in his life.”
How scary. Here is a kid who simply wants to dedicate his life to Christ, but everything around him is trying to stop him from living, let alone living for God. He has not been given a chance to live as a kid, but instead is a parent-figure to his older and younger step-brothers.
I may never understand why Kevin has been put through all these terrible things and not me. Sometimes I wish it was me, just so Kevin could live a halfway decent life, but it will never be that way.
Kevin is where he is, and all I can do to help is give of my time and pray. For both Kevin and his parents.
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