5:30 AM...Help LORD!!!

I guess maybe a month or so ago I got new neighbors to move in below me. I welcomed them by calling security the first day they moved in...lol. Dude, I was trying to sleep and he was on the patio banging in nails and talking loud. It was the next day or so when I actually met them in person. I said "Hi, I'm Alicia. I live above you." We small talked for a bit to one, then the other told me to let them know if they ever get too loud instead of calling security...lol.

At any rate...there are a few lifestyle differences between me and my friends and my neighbors and their friends. Staying up all hours of the night (morning), being drunk (every night), bumpin loud music, and talking loud on the patio are all things that I don't do on a regular, if ever. As I said, there are lifestyle differences, clearly. Did I mention the smoke?

Despite the few differences, they are pretty cool. We have our very own version of American Pie (that is what they act like). So we find it pretty entertaining at times. There have been times that it was late and we can here them and I'll say to Marla..."you want me to tell them to shut-up?" To which she replies, "Naw, girl they are funny." We just turn off the TV and listen to the neighbors...lol.

Well this morning around 5:30 am, I was awaken by my neighbor relaying the story of how he was robbed to his mom. I was sleep in my bed, Marla was in the other room in and out as we are listening to his rant. Then he said..."yeah that n*gger robbed me." You know that wasn't going to fly with your girl. Immediately, I get up and before I could get to the other room. Marla is at my door about to go off. Being the peaceful person that I am, I said I would go talk to him.

So I go on the patio and call him to the banister and tell him in a nice cool calm and collected tone how inappropriate that word is. Marla was next to me and we are being nice. And this blonde hair, blues boy decides that he wants to school me on the usage of "n*gger, n*gga, and black people." Exuse me?!?! There was no...I'm sorry I shouldn't have said it, but he wanted to tell me why what he was saying was okay. Marla was livid and I just had to go inside and pray in tongues cuz I didn't have anything else to say.

Next thing we hear is him say...Yeah my neighbors didn't like what I said and they came out here, but you see they went back in cuz they don't have anything to say to me. Why did he say that? Marla is back on the patio telling him off at the top of her lungs. She told him if he didn't live like that, getting drunk every night and clubbing all the time he wouldn't have gotten robbed, but that's they life he lives. She's going off and I go outside only to shut her up and to get her back inside. She gets in the house yelling...and I'm still praying. If people want to act like they live in a trailer park let them, but we don't do that.

Few minutes later...there's a knock on the door. She tells me not to answer, but I open it anyway. He came to apologize. He said that he knows that he shouldn't have said "n*gger" and while his other black friends feel it's okay for him to say "n*gga" he knows that we don't like it. Then he apologized for being loud and having his friends over every night getting drunk because he knows we don't live like that. We actually did feel bad for him that he got robbed and he had a black eye.

Of course I had to take a moment to school him on history. Don't let the swing dancing and country music fool ya, baby girl is a freedom fighter. No matter how far we come, we honor the struggle and those who have gone before us. Honor the blood that was spilled. I told him to learn about "strange fruit" before he lets that word come out of his mouth.

But after the history plug, I had a moment to get down to the heart of matter. Pass the racist comments and noisy neighbors, I had an opening. I looked him in his eyes and I said..."Your life is empty." It's one thing to tell about strange fruit on southern trees, but even better to mention the Savior hanging on the tree. So I continued, "all the stuff you are doing doesn't satisfy you...your life is empty." He said, "Man it's like you know me. You don't do all this stuff, what is it that you do?"

I looked at him and said, "I got Jesus. You are looking for pleasure to fill a void because you have no joy. We all have a God shaped hole and the drinking, partying, smoking, and females won't fill it." That guy had no idea he had a preacha living above him. To say the least, he said he wanted to change and asked if he could start going to church with me.

There are times where I wonder to myself as to why I don't live like others do. Recently, I was told that I was "weird" because of it. But days like today, remind me what all this is really about. I'm reminded why I shouldn't cuss my neighbors out even when it seems that they deserve it, why I live my little quiet peaceful life. Sometimes I think it's boring and lacking a little fun. But it's full of joy and flicker of light in a dark world.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Matt 5:16