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There was an article posted a few days ago about a church that had the sound equipment stolen for their big Sunrise Easter Service. This service is outside, is attended by over a thousand people and without that equipment there would be no way for the large crowd to hear the music or the pastor. They would have to cancel it. But what was interesting about the story was that when the church discovered the theft, they all got together, discussed what happened, and —  they prayed for the thieves. They forgave them. Then they rented sound equipment and the service went on as scheduled.

Now, what’s even more fascinating about this story is when you look at it from a different angle — at the people who took the equipment — you can tell a few things about them. See, those thieves did not set out to be thieves. Absolutely not. They didn’t tell their Guidance Counselors that’s what they wanted to do. They didn’t set thief-goals. They didn’t dream about being the greatest thieves ever and they didn’t brag at High School reunions of how one day they would steal sound equipment from churches. It just happened. Stealing became the default. The fall back. And it happened for one simple reason.

They got desperate.

We know this as a fact. Because no one — and I mean, no one — steals for the sheer pleasure of it. The idea of the millionaire cat burglar taking jewels for the thrill of the challenge, is fiction. Because nobody has a great day stealing. No thief takes pride in their work. No thief feels good about what they do. They get desperate. Then they get stupid. In fact, every stupid thing we do, have done, and will ever do, is because we got desperate. Which means we got stupid. And then we say those words. I have no choice. We get in a corner and our options seem limited.

Which is a lie. No matter what — every time — we always have options. We always have choices.

Why do millions of people fall for internet and e-mail scams every year? That’s easy. Because they are so desperate that they need those cons to be true — wealthy people don’t fall for these things, desperate people do. They are in a dire need for money, their options seem limited and they think: if this were true, it would fix everything.  They switch off their  intelligence because they need it to be true. This has to work becausethere is no other choice.

And when you go even further, when you boil that desperation down what do you have? What is at the core of desperation?

Fear.

Desperation is the fear that the alternative, the next step, is so terrible that we have to do this horrible thing to make sure that the other horrible thing doesn’t happen.

Stealing is less scary then going without that next fix or that next drink. Stealing is less risky than waking up and having to face the world clear headed. Taking this stuff is far less scary than having to face all the bad decisions we’ve made and take different route. So we cross that line. We pop open that church’s storage trailer and fueled by desperation we grab that sound equipment. And what happens then?

Nothing. Nothing happens. We get that sound equipment and we get it to a pawn shop and we get the money. And when we wake up the next morning there aren’t people pounding on our door. We don’t hear sirens wailing towards us. The world doesn’t end. Nothing happened.

Not to us anyway. But something always happens.

Several years ago, my wife’s ninety year old grandmother had her house robbed while she was out. The thieves got away with two old televisions and some costume jewelry. Total take, around four hundred dollars.

When Beulah — yes, that’s her real name — came home, she was shocked. She called the police and she called her family. A new lock was put on the house and a new television was purchased. But the story didn’t end there.

Beulah couldn’t sleep after that. She was so worried about the thieves coming back that she became completely preoccupied with this idea. She stopped sleeping and eating altogether. She would call family all hours of the night and tell them that someone was upstairs. And one night a neighbor found Beulah in her driveway in just a nightgown, running from the house because she was convinced the thieves had come back for her.

Beulah went into a nursing home shortly after that because she was couldn’t focus on anything other than the  thieves. And when she died a few years later she was still obsessed with that break in.

Now, did those thieves kill Beulah?

No. Probably not. But they did take the joy and security out of the few years that she had left. No doubt about that. And they did it for four hundred dollars.

But the good thing for the thieves is, that they will never know that — that’s the only career advantage in being a thief. You steal, you run, you never have to look your victims in the eye and the consequences are kept far, far away from you.

When we get desperate, we get stupid. We change. And we change the world around us. Every time.

2,000 years ago two other thieves faced their own last hours on earth. They thought about their lives and they considered all that they had done.

One became humble.

And the other one remained desperate.

BY:

evdemorier@aol.com

Everett De Morier has appeared on CNN, Fox News Network, NPR, ABC, as well as in The New York Times and The London Times. He is the author of Crib Notes for the First Year of Marriage: A...


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