Men After God's Own Heart by Dijorn Moss

different things. I just don’t want to be afraid. I want to walk the streets and get respect. I can’t get that being some poor boy in the hood.”
    â€œThe devil is the master of deception. He had me thinking that stealing was the only way that I would have anything of value. He had me thinking that being in a gang was the only way I would ever be anything of value. It was a lie, Josh. It’s all a lie. I’m more of a man now than I’ve ever been because of Christ.”
    Joshua did not say a word. He just put his head down.
    â€œWhat are you going to do if they ask you to kill someone? Can you live with yourself?”
    Joshua did not reply. He just kept his head down.
    â€œD-Loc was one of the most feared men on the streets, and he’s dead before he reached thirty. Thirty, Josh.” Will put his hand on Joshua’s shoulder and eased him up so that he could look at his brother eye to eye. “You want to live to see thirty?”
    Joshua shrugged his shoulders. “Not if it’s going to be the same old stuff. I just want to be like you.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with being like me now?”
    â€œMan, it’s not realistic. I ain’t going to meet some rich guy to bless me with a new situation.”
    â€œYou don’t know what God has in store for you. Does Dad know about you being in a gang?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œAnd what does he say?”
    â€œHe doesn’t agree with it, but he says I got to do what I got to do.”
    Will leaned back in his chair and shook his head in disbelief. A line had formed at the barber college again. Will had to go back to work. “We ain’t finished with this. Josh, you got a chance to do something with your life. And if it takes my last breath, then I’m going to make sure that you do.”
    The sound of an aggressive horn broke up Will’s cathartic moment with his brother. He looked outside and spotted his father in a new Cadillac coupe. There was only one way he could explain having it. Joshua ran out of the barbershop like a kid who had heard the bell sound on the last day of school. With purposeful strides, Will followed right behind, shaking his head. His father let down the window to put out the ashes of his Dutch and then took another puff with a smile, as if he had just gotten away with murder.
    The image reminded Will of all those years that he had stolen cars and had never got caught, while his father had always seemed to get caught. It was because Will was smarter. His father knew more about cars than most manuals. It was because Will always had a goal, and he never deviated from that goal. His goal was to steal a car and get it off the streets as soon as humanly possible, get paid, and disappear. His father, on the other hand, wanted to live a lifestyle that he had never had and would never have.
    â€œHey, boy, what do you say we go and get a couple of those burritos at King Taco?” Will’s father said to Joshua.
    That was all it took for Joshua to make his way to the passenger side of the vehicle without hesitation.
    â€œJoshua, come here, man,” Will said.
    â€œMan, don’t get involved,” Odell replied.
    Will addressed his father with his hands and not his eyes. “Man, I don’t got nothing to say to you except that I’ll pray for you, because you got some real issues pulling a gun on your own son.”
    â€œSon or not, I won’t take being disrespected. And you ain’t so perfect yourself.”
    â€œI know, which is why I stay praying, and I pray for you because in the end we all going to have to give account for God, and you have systemically destroyed this family in more ways than one.”
    Joshua stopped and stood frozen in his tracks, not sure what to do in this situation. Will’s father, on the other hand, put the car in park and got out. He stopped within striking distance and allowed Will to consider the head and shoulder