What's the Truth?

Would you die for your friends?

Of course you would, what kind of question is that? Our friends are the reason we survive sometimes. They're the people who are constantly there for us, the people with the offered shoulder to cry on, the people we share secret laughs with. Who would not die for their friends?

Valor; it’s beautiful. It’s how people can die for their friends. It’s how that daring prince kills the dragon for his princess, or how David hits the giant, Goliath, with a tiny stone. It’s how Edward defends Bella, or how Frodo strives to destroy the ring. We watch them, and we know those tales are right – that’s how it’s just supposed to be.

So we admit we would die for our friends, that we would stand up against injustice. Some might go further and state they wouldn’t have an abortion no matter the circumstance, or others might pronounce that they would offer up the world for that special person. They are so magnificent, our words & intentions.

But stop. What if they are just words and intentions?

No, I mean really. Would you die for your friends? Really? Would you? There’s a blazing fire in a building of apartments – a building where a couple of your best friends live. You might have to put up a good struggle with the soot-faced firemen to even get close to the smoke-choked heat. Once you plunge in, if you plunge in, you’ll be gasping to drink just a drop of air, but still you know there might be enough time rescue one friend, and then go back in for another.

Or maybe your friend decided to be a show-off and jump off the boat for a swim. You see a sharp fin creeping along, your friend spies it too, and he dashes back towards the boat. Except he begins to panic along the way – he starts wildly spiraling down. There might be enough time to dive in and bring him aboard, or at least hand him to the sailors before being carelessly torn into a mangled mess.

Would you?

Would you really hand over your life? If you saw a gang murder, would you tell, even if they might come back to haunt and kill you as well? If you became pregnant by someone you didn’t know, would you be strong enough to keep the baby? Would you give world to one person, if you could? Would you?

If we thought about our words, not as stories that will never happen, but as future facts, would we stay true? Do we know what we say when we say it? Because the truth is, we think we know what we'd do if we were ever in a bad situation, but how can we predict exactly what we’ll do? Imagining something happen and then actually have it happen are two different things.

But then, if I dig deeper, I know that if our friend’s really in immediate danger, we probably aren’t going to waste enough time to think about it, we’d probably be stupid enough to just rush in and save our friend. That’s what love does – it makes us forget about ourselves.

And all this time, I thought I was writing about valor . . .

{Hey! Sorry I haven't commented on your blogs much - some unexpected stuff has come up (which I'll probably post about later). Anyways, please feel free to comment - I love to hear your thoughts :) }