Falling to Heaven: The Surprising Path to Happiness by James L. Ferrell

Author:James L. Ferrell [Ferrell, James L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Deseret Book
Published: 2012-04-05T06:00:00+00:00

13

Unacceptable and Acceptable Sins

A decade or so ago, needing to leave a family reunion a day early to get home for work, I hopped a ride with a cousin, her friend, and one of my brothers-in-law. I was significantly older than the rest and, theoretically at least, the most responsible.

Just fifteen miles from my home, the car began to cough and sputter, and then it quickly died. We coasted to the side of the freeway, out of gas. The next exit was a mile ahead. We were discussing who might go look for a gas station when a passing car slowed and pulled to the shoulder fifty yards in front of us. I remember looking at the car and thinking that it was in worse shape than ours. The rattling car backed up a bit and stopped. Then all four doors opened simultaneously.

Sometimes memory can play tricks on you. I remember returning to the home of my youth, for example, and finding it and the yard much smaller than I had remembered. The epic battles that we had waged in the backyard just couldn’t have happened on that small plot of ground. But they had—perhaps a little less heroically than I had remembered. My memory of those climbing from the car in front of us may be of this sort—part what really happened mixed with what my mind has dreamed up over the years. In any case, here is what I remember: Four teenagers emerged from the car, each of them dressed in black. One of them had a green mohawk that stood eight inches tall. Another had a nose ring. All of them were accessorized with an ample number of chains.

They walked toward us, and I remember thinking, We’re going to DIE. The four of us climbed out of our car to meet them. As they strode up to us, one of them asked, “You having some trouble?”

“It looks like we’re out of gas,” one of us responded.

To which one of them said, “We can take one of you for some gas.”

Silence. The oldest of our group (me) looked down at his feet. Someone might die today, I thought to myself, but it isn’t going to be me. As I still gazed at the ground, I heard my brother-in-law say, “I can come with you.” A moment or two later I lifted my head to see him trudging off with the leather posse.

Fifteen minutes later, this group of teenagers dropped him off at our car with a container full of gas. Wishing us well, they waved good-bye and continued on their way.

I have reflected on this experience many times over the years. Here was this group of young people doing for me what I, honestly, had never done for another. How many broken-down cars have I passed and not helped—even when safety would not have been a worry? Even worse, how many have I passed and not even noticed? And yet there I was passing judgment on those who were putting themselves out to help me.

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