No Fighting!

Man, how many times am I going to be wakened by beating on the wall? Wait, there's not any rapping going on. That's a fight! That's a head bouncing off the wall! As much as I want to put an end to this, I'm completely powerless and, as they say in here, it's not my business so it's not for me to worry about.

I just rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. It turns out that the fight was a "heart check", a 30- second fight for gang initiation. I didn't see who was involved but I did see the guy taking the two-on-one beating. His face was puffed up, bruised and cut. Of all the heart checks I've seen here, this was the worst - I would have classified it as an old-fashioned beat down.

I hate seeing this stuff and think it's one of the dumbest ways to initiate people to a gang: rough them up to see if they can take it. Anyone can be beat up. Unfortunately, it's the nature of where I am and will not be changed anytime soon. I am firmly against violence of any kind. I haven't been in a fight since fourth grade, though some people have tried to pull me into a few. I haven't found anywhere in the New Testament where Christ indulged in or Christians were taught to use violence against another person. Even at His arrest, Christ scolded Peter when the latter sliced an ear off a guard.

Please join me in praying that God would get a hold of these guys and they would leave their violent attitudes behind.