Yesterday was a historical moment in my life. Let the story unfolds.
It all began on a Sunday, 14th October 2007. It was during the Hari Raya festive season, the 9 Gods festival ( the one where you eat pink colored turtle 'pau's ), and the school holidays. It was a rainy day, but nevertheless, Clarence the Brave-hearted sacrificed his afternoon nap for a game of captain ball in church.
Well, everything was rather fine at first, except that the rain got heavier when I reached church. I ended up playing Neopets in church with Ah Kai, Kar Wai, Wai Kit and Glenn instead. Around 6 something, my churchmate came in and told me that game's gonna start as the rain ceased.
And so, I headed out, all fired up for a ruthless game of captain ball. The game was fun, and I was at my best yesterday. But this story is not about a game of captain ball. As we were playing halfway, one of my church mates noted that there was a man loitering near the area where we left our belongings ( for those who knows, it is the library where we left our stuff on the benches ). So Daniel approached that guy and asked him what he was doing with few of us behind. He kept walking away saying in cantonese, "Mou yeh, mou yeh" ( which means nothing ).
Suddenly, that malay-indian-bangla mix guy sprinted and ran for his life. Well of course, being the heroes that we are, Daniel, me and Andrew sprinted as well in pursuit of him. As he ran, he turned around and threw the rake he was holding at us. Andrew picked it up and we continued to run, out into the road. Well, the highlight of the story was this. As we were chasing this guy, a police car passed by. We waved and yelled frantically but to no avail. Instead, civilians were even more helpful as some of them honked and even stopped their cars. Now back to the chase, as he was fat, wearing slippers and long pants, he eventually fell in the middle of the road. That was when my bravest friend Andrew smashed this guy's head with the rake. In return, he took the rake and smashed Andrew, breaking the rake and resulting in an injury to Andrew's back.
We kept chasing after him, and he turned around and shouted, "Jangan mari!" For all we know, we did exactly the opposite. Andrew was literally out of his mind as he went all out and even had a few punches with this thief. In the end he gave up and stopped running just when I was ready to throw in a few punches and kicks. He scolded us and said he was only trying to take a few mangoes. We did not believe him as we recognised him to be the previous thief that took some of the girls' handphones. So he asked to go to the 'balai' ( police station ). And so we said we were more than happy to do so. On the way there, we had a heated exchange of words with him, me and Andrew being the ones involved.
And so after making sure everything was alright in church, and nobody has lost anything, 4 - 5 of us guys escorted our "King" to the police station nearby. As we were walking there, this guy kept checking for injuries to his body but found none. Instead, a ridge can be clearly seen on Andrew's back. As we walked there, my friend Adrin drove his car there and we told him to go to the 'balai' first as we were almost there as well. Seeing that he had no injuries and he has everything to lose from going to the 'balai', he knelt down by the roadside and pleaded with us. He kept saying sorry and asked for a chance. At the sight of this, my heart was immediately soften a little, tho' my anger was still burning and the adrenaline in me has not stopped rushing yet. So, being the nice people that we are, we told him alright, we'll let him go, but we don't ever want to see him around here stealing. We told him that if he wants to be friends, he's ever welcomed, that if he needs help, we can give and we asked him to come on Sundays. Finally, before leaving him, we asked whether he was hungry or he needed anything. He just kept saying no need and even hugged and shook our hands.
That was how the story ended. Indeed, it was a life time experience for me as I've never encountered such incidents before. Well, this has got me thinking alot and there are a few lessons to be learnt from this. First of all, I realised, I'm not that brave after all. Hey, this guy was fat, and couldn't run properly. Tho' I could easily outrun him, I held back a considerable amount of speed, especially when he turned and shouted at us not to follow him. I was thinking too much about the technicalities, as to whether he had concealed weapon such as a blade, or pocket-knife, and whether hitting him would prove to be more advantageous for him if we were to catch him and bring him to justice. Compared to my friend, Andrew, he was completely different. Risking life and limbs, Andrew went all out after him, determined to catch him no matter what. And that is what I admire so much about my friend, something which I have to learn from this incident. But yet, I realised that blind bravery without safety precautions in mind first is stupidity. And so, bravery must always be balanced with a fair amount of rational thinking.
Secondly, this incident also stirred up a memory verse in my head. It's the memory verse about how many times we should forgive a brother who sins against us ( Matthew 18 ). Jesus answered, "Seventy times seven" which did not literally mean that we count up till that number, the amount of times we forgive our brother. It basically meant, we should always forgive, just as how our Father in heaven always forgives us no matter how many times we sin, as long as we truly repent. I realised we are no better than this man who tried to steal. We are just as perverted, and sinful as he is. Therefore, I believe strongly, our decision to let him go was the only right thing to do. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ( Romans 3 : 23 ).
And so, concludes a story, which has spiritual and moral lessons to be learnt. The irony of it was, a police car passed us by, and yet they were just as blind and helpless as rats. Have a good day, friends.
