Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Neighborly Warmth


Last night while watching the Colts dismantle the Jaguars, Amy and I heard a sustained honking/"car-alarmish" sound. As I turned the corner around the back of my house, I first felt a little fear: I've seen too many movies where if the person just didn't round the corner out of curiosity, he would haven not been killed.

But I had to take my chances, after all, this was real life. I noticed some lighting reflected on the side of my neighbor's house. So I expected something bright. Well I got it.

There was the large, jacked up, pimped out, technicolored dream Oldsmo-Buick with tall flames spewing forth. Because the car was so high, the trees almost caught the blaze. Eventually fire trucks came out and doused the flames.

Apparently yesterday, very early in the morning, someone was shot inside that house. The victim described it as a home invasion, but the cops questioned the veracity of this account. Regardless, the car fire all but proves that something else was going on. But we'll leave that to the authorities, and I'll try not to connect the dots.

This ought to shed some light into the differences of men/women, or perhaps just Amy and myself. I was concerned primarily about property values: what would this do to an already unsellable neighborhood?

Amy was concerned about safety: is the area safe? Are we more likely to get hurt in this neighborhood? We talked about it for a little bit and concluded with this.

Car fires actually do happen in all kinds of neighborhoods (my parents' a few weeks ago/my friend's a year ago), as do break-ins and home invasions. On the 48 Hour Mystery specials, all the murders take place in upper class neighborhoods.

In the end, we can't protect ourselves sufficiently to prevent any worry or 'concern.' But God can protect us sufficiently, wherever we are. We believe, or at least try our hardest to believe in a Sovereign God who doesn't succumb to circumstances, statistics, or trends.

"Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases." Psalm 115:3

He will protect us in the end and bring us safely into His heavenly Kingdom no matter what (II Tim 4:18). I'm just glad Amy and I can see He is "our God (meaning He is in covenant relationship with us)." That should provide sufficient security, and help out my concerns about property values!

If you'd like to read the Bradenton Herald Article about this event, click here!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We had a similar incident about 3 houses down from our house a month or so ago. The lady's boyfriend assaulted her and tried to torch her house. I don't think that the lady's husband was too happy.