I don't want to Tolerate!

"...But that's the point. We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it's common; it's trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon and night. Well not any more, I am setting the example."

Though this excerpt comes from the twisted serial killer movie, Seven, it stuck with me. So much so, that the next day I had to fast forward through the movie until I found it. 

The word tolerate in itself shouldn't be something we do. Especially if it has to do with our relationships. Now I know I am not innocent of this. If I said I was, I would for sure be the kettle calling the pot black. Why do we tolerate sin? Why do we sit by and let others suffer. I have been guilty many times of rolling my eyes and thanking the Lord that's not me. Why? I just tolerated sin. And when we tolerate, we show sin is OK. It's NOT! We weren't created to watch others spiritually and emotionally die. 

Last summer in New Orleans I was driving by myself back to our house. As I sat at a light, my eye caught a man walking down the street. Right then, he fell face first onto the pavement. A woman walking nearby picked up her dog and ran from him. He was in need of help. I had to make a quick choice in my head... pull over and help this stranger, or keep driving. I hesitated and pulled over a little ways down the street. With 9-1-1 yelling at me to calm down, I sprinted to the man, who at this point was laying in a pool of blood choking on it. He couldn't breathe. Shaking from all the Adrenalin, I and another man rolled the victim onto his side where he was able to gasp for a much needed breath. He obviously was seizing. I held onto him tightly as the other man held his head. I prayed and prayed that he would be OK. 

What if I hadn't stopped? What if no one stopped? Would he have died?That is a horrible risk to take. It's funny how a man bleeding to death on a busy sidewalk is more shocking than a best friend who throws their life away because of a bad decision we allowed them to make. Let's not tolerate. Please stand with me and stop letting our friends spiritually and emotionally die. It's all around us. Let's set the example and be little Christ's! After all isn't it far much better to save a life than save a friendship?