Please Pray for My Friend

One of my good friends from High School, Brandon Brixey, faces a court hearing today in Tulsa, OK. He is being charged with two counts of first-degree rape and single counts of lewd molestation, kidnapping, robbery and eluding a police officer. My heart literally sank in my chest when I found out a few weeks ago that he had apparently stolen a woman's van outside a tanning salon and raped her 8-year old daughter in front of her siblings. Police have tied him to another rape that happened a couple months ago.

I have been keeping up with many of the news stories online about this case and have seen many outraged people expressing deep anger and hatred toward Brandon; while I agree that his actions are detestable and among the worst forms of sin ever invented by anyone, I still love the friend I remember and I have been surprised to feel, for the first time in my life, compassion toward an (accused) rapist. I still remember how hard Brandon laughed when I told him that he couldn't run the microwave at our house while the A/C was on or he'd blow a fuse. I still remember playing basketball with him in my driveway for hours on end. (I still have a scar on my left eyelid to prove it - the first stitches I ever needed!) I can still remember bringing him to church. And I still remember when he called me three years ago just as I was moving out to California to tell me he had gotten saved and was getting on the right path. Unfortunately I didn't keep in touch with him, though I've always thought of him quite often. I certainly don't blame myself for his actions, but I can't not wish I would have made more of an effort to encourage him in The Way.

I do not think he is beyond redemption, but his road will be a long and hard one, filled with much pain and no doubt more than a little denial. Pray that he comes clean for his actions, that he receives a just but not death-dealing sentence, and most of all that he can begin turning his life around. Pray that his heart breaks at what he's done, that be begs forgiveness for the sins he's committed - from God and the people he's hurt - and pray that God can take even this heinous evil through the process of death and resurrection and perhaps even bring something good out of it all. God never seeks nor wills that anything like this should ever happen, but he is able even to redeem something as horrible as this.

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