#Tuestimony
Knowing the right person saved my life one time…. or at least saved me from a potentially life-threatening beatdown.
Back when I was clubbing erry weekend… I went out with my friend, John. John had actually invited his Brother, Paul, to hang out with us, too. I had never met or even heard of Paul before that day the three of us hung out. Paul was very involved in “street life”. We went to a club and had a great time. But after the club is when things got scary!
Club let out at 2am. We mingled for a short bit and then headed out and walked toward our car, which was about 3.5 blocks away. We made it past the first 2 blocks on the main street and then had to turn down the side street to walk the next 1.5 blocks. Paul was walking by himself ahead of me and my buddy John. When John and I turned down the side street, we noticed about 9 guys walking toward us, but they were about 1.5 blocks up (near our car). Mind you… these guys weren’t all walking together. 2 of them were walking in the street. 4 of them were in a cluster walking on the sidewalk (the same sidewalk John and I were walking down). And another 3 of them were in a cluster on the sidewalk a distance behind the group of 4. We didn’t really think too much of it. But John and I did kinda mention to each other that it was weird they were walking toward the club at closing time and that they couldn’t have come from a club/bar/nightspot from their direction, as there was nothing that way but parking. So we were already feeling peculiar. But we continued walking. We noticed Paul (John’s Brother) kinda weave through the first group of 4 guys on the sidewalk. Then John and I decided not to do that. So we hopped off the sidewalk and just walked in the street.
About midway down the street for me and John… the first group of 4 guys had made it to the corner on the sidewalk… and we were about to cross the 2 guys who were walking up the street. Suddenly and for no apparent reason at all… 1 of the guys in the street circled John twice. I mean… while we were walking… the guy walked around John two times. He literally walked between me and John two times and circled him. It was the most bizarre thing!... because I had no idea what was going on or what was about to happen. So after circling him twice, the guy went and stood on the sidewalk and stared at John, right in his eyes, with the meanest facial expression. You could feel the tension. *For reference, the sidewalk was maybe 10 feet from where I was standing.* I calmly asked John, “Hey, do you know this guy?” And John very loudly and aggressively replied, “No, I don’t know this Mother <use your imagination>!!” And then John looked at the guy and said “What’s up N-word!?”
In my mind… I was soooo mad at John for snapping like that. I mean… I agreed with emotion, but I wished he didn’t express his emotions like that or at that time. Because we were clearly outnumbered. I know John had a few drinks so I didn’t know how good he would have been in a fight. I lost sight of his Paul, but I could see the second group of 3 guys still on the sidewalk but not quite up to where we were. (The other 4 guys were still at the corner waiting). So, I immediately went on alert-mode and told myself to be ready in case someone starts swinging. So… the guy responded to John in an equally loud and aggressive manner, “Naw, I ont know you but I ont like the way you eye-ballin me!” So the other guy was walking in the street ran over and jumped on the sidewalk to (to face us) and asked his friend, “Do we got a problem?” At this point, I tried to talk everybody down. I was like “Nah man, we don’t got a problem. We’re just trying to go home. Our car is down there. We just left the club. We ont want no issues. Yall fellas be safe.” But while I was saying all of that… John was sizing them up with his eyes and he was like “Yall the N-words with the problem.” And then John started backing up slowly and reached his arm behind his back in a motion that suggested that he had a gun tucked. John did not have a gun tucked! But this fool thought he would scare/intimidate the guys if they thought he had a gun. Again, in my mind… this was a horrible move! I just started to back away with John and tried to whisper to him to chill out. Then, one of the guys we were talking to yelled out… “Aye yoooo…. They bout to pop off! Come thru!!” So… the 4 guys who were at the corner immediately started running back down the street toward us. At this point, I just knew it was over. Because obviously they called John’s bluff and weren’t intimidated at all. Rather, they seemed excited about a potential shoot-out, and John definitely didn’t have a gun. So either… we were gonna get shot before we could shoot them, or we were gonna get beat to death for pretending like we had guns.
I said a quick prayer… “God, please forgive me for my sins. Amen.” And by the time the 4 guys made it toward me, John, and the 2 guys we were talking to…… Paul ran back up the sidewalk screaming “Yo yo wait, wait!!”. The group of 3 guys that were on the sidewalk was running up behind Paul. Apparently, Paul knew all the guys. But because he was walking separately, they didn’t know that Paul was with us. So when Paul got back to the mix, one of the guys was like “Yo, you vouch for them?” Paul was like “Yea, that’s my Brother (pointing to John). On my father’s side.” The guy said “Oh ok, so he’s cool?” Paul said “Yea he’s cool.” I was feeling so happy and so relieved!! But then the guy pointed at me and was like “What about that N-word?” Paul said “Well, I ont know him like that.” And he paused. So I was back to ohhh snap… It’s over for me! But then Paul continued, “But he’s with my Brother. And if my Brother cool with him, then I’m cool with him.” And then the guy was like “Oh aight.” And they turned around and started talking to each other and Paul. Me and John slowly backed away until we got a good enough distance to turn around and walk normally to the car. A few moments later, Paul got in the car and we went home.
*end of story*
Before that debacle, John and I partied ALL the time. We’ve experienced some close-call situations where we thought we would have to throw hands… but never against ~10 people who laughed at the threat of a gun. So… on this one particular night, we just so happened to hang out with John’s brother… whom I had never met or heard of (because he was kind of a distant brother on John’s Dad’s side)… and we just so happened to get into a spat that was about to turn violent… and it just so happened that Paul knew the guys and was able to diffuse the situation. Perhaps there are some coincidences in the world… but NOT THIS SITUATION. I believe God had a plan for me and it didn’t included getting beat up or killed. Sure, God’s plan could have been for anyone/everyone else in that situation and perhaps sparing me was just a byproduct of God’s plan for someone else. Either way, I walked away unscathed. And my Faith won’t allow me to take it for granted. So, I praise God that John and I was spared that day. I believe it was an indication that God had use (still has use) for me. So, I will continue to put Him first and fulfill my purpose.
DISCLAIMER: The real names are not "John" and "Paul". So if you know anyone named John who has a brother named Paul... it's not them.