Life is about living and obtaining experiences. It really and actually is. If you are not out “there” living life to it’s fullest, making friends, helping others, and raising a little bit of “Heck”, then you are wasting your life.
Here, we look at others who are making their life count. They are making a difference in the lives of those around them. They are contributing and participating in life. They are the heroes.
When life SCREAMS out your name, will you answer? Will you answer the call, like these people did?
Rufus was the name of the good Samaritan that helped Jesus carry his cross up the hill. In life, there comes, from time to time, an opportunity or a task that SCREAMS out YOUR name. You drop everything and you go out and help others.
Be the Rufus.
Rufus (biblical figure) Rufus ("Red") was a first-century Christian mentioned in Mark 15:21 with his brother Alexander, whose father "Simon a Cyrenian" was compelled to help carry the cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified.
-Wikipedia
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Little girl trapped in the middle of a frantically busy street during rush hour…
Like this man. He’s driving along the road on his way to work, when suddenly he sees a lost and terrified child in the middle of a busy intersection during rush hour. What would you do?
Watch what he does.
Your reality is all up to YOU.
Be the Rufus.
A tale from World War I
The following story appears in Eugene Rogan’s Fall of the Ottomans. It reinforces an idea I have long subscribed to, which is that the fates of men are linked by the Chain of Fortune.
Private Robert Eardley was serving at Gallipoli with the Lancashire Fusiliers. In August 1915 his unit conducted an attack on Turkish lines near the Krithia road; he survived the attack and managed to reach the Ottoman trenches relatively unscathed. Leaping into the enemy trench, he saw a British soldier with bayonet fixed standing over a fallen, wounded Turk. The soldier was hot with the heat of battle, and wanted to plunge his bayonet into the man. “Here, you get out of my way,” he told Eardley. “He has killed my mate and I am going to stick him.” Eardley, feeling pity for the fallen foe, was persistent. He managed to talk his comrade out of killing the wounded man. He said: “Put yourself in his place, chum. One never knows…Don’t do it. That’s a good fellow.” The soldier eventually accepted this argument and relented, storming off with a scowl. Eardley remained with the wounded Turk in the trench.
The two of them could not speak each other’s language, but they did manage to communicate in a primitive way. Eardley dressed the enemy’s head wound, gave him some water and tobacco, and propped him up in the trench with his coat. “I could see by his eyes that he appreciated the kindness,” he would later write.
Soon afterward, however, the tides of battle had turned. An Ottoman counterattack drove the British back to their original lines. Eardley was left to cover the retreat, but was captured by Turkish infantry as they retook the trench. As he looked over the parapet of the trench, he was pierced by the fixed bayonet of an attacking Turk. He wrote: “I felt a sharp piercing sensation—a burning feeling at the back of my left shoulder. I knew I had got the bayonet…I distinctly felt the thrust and drawing out.” He passed out from loss of blood as dozens of Turks overran his position. When Eardley regained consciousness, he found himself surrounded by enemy soldiers with fixed bayonets, their eyes ablaze with hate.
They began to lower their bayonets and move steadily toward him. He was sure that he had come to the end of the road. Then, suddenly, he heard a voice crying out from among the enemy gathered before him. A Turkish man with a bandaged head, jabbering unceasingly in his native language, leaped between Eardley and the rest of the soldiers. Although he was still weak, he wrapped his arms around Eardley, covering him with his body, while gesticulating wildly with his comrades. In his dazed state, Eardley finally realized: this was the same man whose life he had saved in the first attack.
A Turkish noncommissioned officer finally arrived on the scene, and the wounded Turk explained the situation to him. Eardley could not understand what was being said, but it was clear that the Turk he had saved was now trying to save his life. After a few minutes of discussion, the noncommissioned officer said to Eardley in broken English: “English, get up. No one will harm you. You would have died if only for this soldier. You gave him water, you gave him smoke, and you stop bleed. You very good Englishman.” He then patted Eardley on the back.
As he was being led away into captivity, Eardley shook hands with his savior, with whom he could not communicate. But all that needed to be said was said with their eyes, and with their physical touch. “I shook hands with this Turk (and would give all I possessed to see this man again). As our hands clasped, I could see he understood, for he lifted his eyes and called ‘Allah’ and then kissed me. I can feel this kiss even now on my cheek as if it was branded there or was part of my blood.” The two men parted, and never saw each other again.
In such ways, and through such fortuitous interventions, are the fates of men linked by the all-powerful Chain of Fortune. It links all human affairs with its own unfathomable logic, which we dare not disregard.
Baby has his hand caught in the escalator…
It’s a crowded mall, people go up and then down the escalator. They you look over and you see a “commotion” on the escalator. You only have seconds. What do you do?
You be the Rufus.
Every escalator has an off button at both the top and the bottom of the machine. Look for it. Know that it is there. If something goes wrong, you spring into action. Make no mistake, it’s your time.
When your time is called, be the Rufus.
Man has a heart attack in the car, and passes out with his foot on the gas…
When things go wrong you don’t know what is happening. You don’t know the reasons. You don’t know the causes. All that you know is that something is terribly wrong. Really, absolutely wrong.
You be the Rufus.
You spring into action. It’s now YOUR time.
You do not think. You do not reason. You react automatically and you take action.
You be the Rufus.
Abdul Haji
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcx6dHd6uKI
Imagine for a second that you get a text from your brother saying that he’s inside a mall that has been attacked by terrorists. He expects to die any second. What do you do? If you’re Abdul Haji, the answer is grab a gun, drive to the mall, and single-handedly take on those terrorists.
A Kenyan of Somali ethnicity, Abdul unwittingly charged headlong into Kenya’s ongoing battle with Al-Shabab militants from neighboring Somalia. The terrorist attack in question was the infamous Nairobi Westgate Mall assault in 2013 which killed 67. The death toll would have been even higher were it not for Abdul.
A businessman with a pistol license, Abdul took his weapon to the mall and opened fire on the Islamic militants with no thought for his own safety. At the time, security forces were nowhere to be seen.
Abdul was joined by a handful of plainclothes officers and some medics from the Red Cross. Their ragtag group went from floor to floor of the mall. They gave cover to trapped civilians and helped them to escape.
At one point, Abdul managed to save a four-year-old girl and her mother who were hiding literally inches from the jihadists, shielded only by a single table. He even managed to find his brother, who miraculously survived the attack. To this day, the modest Abdul denies being a hero.
Car catches on fire in the middle of the road…
So, it’s a normal day. You are driving along. Suddenly you notice smoke coming out of a van and the driving is erratic. What would you do? Would you take control like this lady does?
Would you be the Rufus?
She does what she can, you know.
In China, most doors auto-lock if the car is in drive. So if the driver is incapacitated, you cannot open the doors to rescue him. Not so for the rear hatch doors, though.
She springs into action and opens up the rear hatch. But there is already boxes on fire. What to do, what to do?
You be the Rufus.
Police in “Hot Pursuit”, do you stand by as a spectacular or do you assist?
So, you are in an airport or train station. You look up and see a police woman running after a young man dressed in black. What do you do? Do you stand and watch idly by? Do you try to assist?
What do you do?
You, be the Rufus.
Yes. You be the Rufus.
It is our responsibility as men; as humans. It is what a “good Christian” does. We are responsible of our life and we should be helpful and protective to those around us in need.
On Being The Rufus…
We need to stop judging others, and live our own life to the best of our ability. We need to realize that we can make a great difference in this world if we just concentrate in bettering the life immediately around us. That means that we turn off all the negative news, and isolate ourselves away from the negative people.
We need to stop looking at the outside, and study the insides of the people that has the great impact on our life, and the lives of those we care about.
In the above, the term “auntie” means “low-paid worker”. It is a title of respect given to un-skilled or under-paid workers. It’s difficult to read, but the translation of the dialog is in white characters in the video.
Yes.
Be the Rufus.
Other Examples
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.
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