I turned quickly, dodging Trent*, then shot.

Swoosh! "Two points for me!" I shouted.

I shot hoops after school every day with Trent and Dylan. It was just the three of us, unwinding after a long, boring day of classes. The gym was usually empty, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Then Jackson started showing up.

He had bushy eyebrows that connected in the middle, a dopey walk and a hugely annoying habit of never leaving us alone. Jackson had recently transferred to our school and, for some reason, he decided we needed to be his friends. He'd show up at lunch, butting into our conversations. He'd show up at the gym, begging to let him play ball with us. We tried ignoring him. We tried putting him down. Nothing seemed to work.

After Jackson intruded on us in the gym one too many times, my friends totally lost it.

"Not again!" Trent moaned, rolling his eyes.

"Get lost, Unibrow!" Dylan yelled, snatching the ball from Jackson's hands. "You can't shoot. You can't dribble. You can't pass. And you run like a chicken."

"Are you kidding?" Trent said. "I'd rather have a chicken on my team than this loser."

We all broke into laughter. As usual, despite the stream of insults, Jackson wouldn't budge.

"I'd split if I were you," I told Jackson. But his feet remained firmly planted at center court.

"Let's just pretend he's not here," I told Trent and Dylan.

"How can we?" Trent asked. "He's in the way!"

Trent put his hand on Jackson's shoulder and shoved him hard.

"Mooove!" he shouted.

"No!" Jackson said defiantly.

"Beat it!" Trent insisted as he grabbed Jackson by the shirt collar and flung him to the floor. Jackson sprang to his feet and started swinging his fists in self-defense, grazing Dylan's chin with his knuckle.

"You little punk!" Dylan yelled as he hurled a left hook, hitting Jackson in the face.

With no other kids or teachers around, I ran over to try and break up the fight. But I wasn't quick enough to stop Dylan from punching Jackson a second time—this time hard in the gut. Jackson doubled over and fell to his knees.

"C'mon—get up," Trent said, taunting Jackson.

"Dude, that's enough," I said, pulling Dylan back.

Jackson slowly stood up and headed for the gym door as Dylan and Trent cheered.

Although Jackson irritated me, I felt like my friends had gone too far this time. I decided the only decent thing to do was find Jackson and see if he was OK. But I didn't think it would be cool to let Dylan and Trent know what I was up to, so I made up an excuse: "I have to go take care of something. I'll catch up with you later." Then I went searching for Jackson and found him all alone in the locker room. He was repeatedly slamming his locker door.

I slowly approached him.

"Are you OK, man?" I asked.

Jackson wouldn't respond or even look at me. I didn't know what to say so I blurted out the first thing that entered my head.

"What were you thinking? I told you to leave! Why did you have to stay and tick them off?"

"Are you kidding me?!" Jackson said through clenched teeth. "You're really gonna try and pin this on me? All I wanted was to hang with you guys."

He sat down on the wooden bench, resting his elbows on his knees and pressing his shirt sleeve to his bloody lip.

"Listen, man," I said. "I'm sorry this happened. The guys were way outta line."

"And how 'bout you?"

"What about me?" I asked. "What did I do?"

"Forget it," Jackson said, shaking his head. "I guess I'm the idiot here. I thought we could be friends. Clearly, I was wrong."

"Hey, I came looking for you, didn't I?" I said defensively.

"What? You expect me to thank you for being decent to me one day out of the past two months?" Jackson asked.

A jolt of guilt went through me. I was trying to paint myself as the "good guy" by blaming Dylan and Trent for all of Jackson's pain. I may not have slugged him, but every day I beat Jackson down by ignoring him, laughing at him, and calling him names. I suddenly felt so ashamed. God wanted me to love and care for others. And I hadn't once shown an ounce of love or care for Jackson.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I've been acting like a big jerk."

I cleared my throat and continued.

"Maybe sometime you and I can shoot some baskets."

"Yeah, maybe," was all Jackson said. It wasn't exactly like saying "I forgive you." But, at least, he didn't say, "I hate your guts." I left the locker room that day wishing I could push back time and treat Jackson like a human being.

After that day, Jackson and I did hang out a little. We even occasionally played some one-on-one, which helped me get to know him better. It turns out Jackson wasn't as weird as I'd thought. In fact, we had a lot in common. We both played instruments (he played the violin; me, the cello). We also both loved basketball and tennis. I wouldn't have learned these things about Jackson if I never tried to be his friend.

After that experience with Jackson, I tried my best to treat others with greater respect—especially people who were new to school. A few months after the incident with Jackson, I spotted a new student sitting alone in the cafeteria. I sat down next to him and asked him where he was from, which classes he was taking—stuff like that. He seemed really happy that someone had shown some interest in him. It felt good knowing that I made someone's day a little better just by asking a few questions.

At first Dylan and Trent gave me a hard time about what they called my campaign to "be nice to the newbies." But then an amazing thing happened. I started to see changes in the way my friends acted toward people they'd usually ignore or put down. I even caught them giving a head nod or a smile to the "loner" kid they'd pass in the hallway. It blows my mind to think that these are the same guys who once got a kick out of humiliating Jackson. It goes to show that God's love really does make anything possible.

My experience with Jackson was a wake-up call for me. It showed me how important it is not to label others "misfits and losers," but to treat them with kindness and respect. It also demonstrated how much I need to show others the same kind of love God shows me all the time.

Josh loves playing tennis and hanging at the beach with friends. This fall, he began studying medicine at Pennsylvania State University.

* Names have been changed

Read more from 'It Happened to Me'

				Try an Issue of Ignite Your Faith Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Ignite Your Faith coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive eight more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Ignite Your Faith as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

FREE Newsletters Subscribe to the Ignite Your Faith Connection Newsletter: Subscribe to the Christian College Guide Newsletter:    RSS Feed   RSS Help