ANTI-STUPID SOLUTION

“I did something really stupid,” Brent told me. He looked sickish. This prompted me to ask: “Is there something wrong?”

I see 14 year-old Brent often at a group I lead at church. Even though he’s been faithfully attending for two years, Christ-like behavior has only minimally appeared in his life. And because of past behavior “really stupid” could mean nearly anything.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I said. He glanced down a moment and then looked at me; slowly saying, “Yeah.” Because Brent was minutes away from leaving on a family camping trip, we agreed to talk another time.

Eight days later at church, I reminded Brent of our agreement. He stalled. I didn’t press. Then the cork popped as his story spilled out rapid-fire.

Brent’s friend Perez gave him a 22 caliber pistol. And then Brent took it over to his friend Jonathan’s house. So now we have an immature 14 year-old showing his immature 13 year-old friend a loaded pistol.

Jonathan’s dad caught them.

I didn’t ask, but I was thinking: “Would possessing the gun have been really stupid if you hadn’t got caught?” With Brent, like most humans, the flip to “really stupid” probably occurred when he got caught.

But we get caught; don’t we? Now what do we do?

This can be approached in a multitude of ways. I gave Brent this scripture. “A righteous person may fall seven times, but they rise again.”

Doing stupid things is inevitable. And getting caught is highly likely. Now the righteous person, the person who wants to live Godly, will get back on track.

Be smart. Rise again. Apologize to people and make restitution. Most importantly, ask our ever-loving God for forgiveness. And then you will rise again. This time to a life more pleasing to God.