So, Sunday night I was left pondering what in the world Matt was talking about or what kind of trouble he was about to get himself into. Monday, at the end of the busiest part of the day (11-1:30), I headed over to Rock Island to check out what was for lunch. No luck. Looks like another day of oven pizza, micro waved burrito or leftover food from Sunday night. As I made my way back over the Cross and Crown to see if anyone had any alternate plans I ran into none other than Matt. He looked bad.
After talking to him for several minutes I was finally able to figure out what his big meeting was all about. Just within the past couple hours he had talked to his old girlfriend/employee who he had been running around with back when he was into the business of soliciting women for cash. Matt has a relatively long history with this specific women. Pretty much ever since we have known him, we have known her. They have always been off and on, as far as "dating" goes (if you want to call it dating). One day they were together and everything was great, the next they hated each other and someone was wronging the other person in some fashion. Several months ago this girl he has been running around with for quite some time discovered she was pregnant. No real shock there. Based on the type of lifestyle/job that she has adopted, it really comes as no surprise that she has become pregnant. What did come as somewhat of a surprise was that Matt was/is the father of this child.
So, that's what his meeting was all about. He told this girl that she had to choose. She had to choose between him and the man she was currently with. This isn't the first time Matt has had to confront her with a similar decision, like I said, they were frequently together and apart. Although, because she was now carrying his baby there was some added frustration to her decision to be with the other man. Matt openly talks about just about any and everything he has done or is doing. He told me how he so badly wanted to head down the street, get the 'hook' up from one of his buddies and just shoot up so he didn't have to think about it. It wasn't to hard to inform him of the reality that hours later when it wore off he would still be faced with the some troubles. He agreed, but I still wasn't sure what he would do. He also talked about the possibility of just going and beating down the man his girl was now staying with. Again, no real solution.
After several minutes of discussing options to his predicament I kinda went off on him. I asked him several questions, like, "Why do you think your in this situation?", "How can you make this situation right?", "Is it even possible to make something good come from this?", "What good will come from her(the mother of his supposed child) getting back with you?". He responded by saying that he knows that everything he is in is a result of the life he has chosen or the choices he has made. He mentioned how he wants to be apart of this childs life (apparently this isn't the first time this has happened, but with a different women).
After talking to him a few more minutes we decided the best thing for him to do would be to check on a few jobs that might have work for him. He agreed with me that all he could do was give her an opportunity to be with him and let him be apart of the childs life but it was up to her from there to make her decision. He couldn't make that decision for her. Before I left to go back over to Rock Island we prayed together and asked that God would give him direction, opportunities to do right and the strength and power to choose to do the right thing when those opportunities were presented.
A couple hours later, as I was headed home, Matt was walking towards Cross and Crown, again. He was pretty pumped. He said he made a few calls and had some hours to work. He expressed his gratefulness for the advice and especially the prayer.
Matt isn't a novel or some short story I made up to write on my blog. He isn't some figurative character that came to my mind with fictional scenarios that I made up. This is a real person. This is his real life. Honestly I struggled with whether or not to write everything that I have about Matt. I don't want it to seem like I am exploiting him and his life just for the sake of a interesting blog post. But, I do want people to know about the realness of the people that live in this neighborhood. To alot of people who have never been to Cross and Crown I can understand how it may be easy to read one of these blogs and think, "Ahhh, that's so sad", and then think nothing else of it. So I say this just to clarify, these are real people, just like you and me who struggle with daily temptations, choices and thoughts. So, what I would like you to do is more than just think, "Oh, how sad". Pray for Matt. Pray for his job/work opportunities. Pray that he makes wise choices and decisions.
In the future I will continue to give updates on Matt and his whereabouts, but will probably not get as in depth as I did in these past two blogs.
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