Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotslight. I'm Marina Santi.
Speaker 2: And I'm Colin Louva. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 3: I made big mistakes before, but never this big, and
Speaker 3: I never regretted anything I did before.
Speaker 1: Derek looked at the jail walls surrounding him. He put
Speaker 1: his head in his hands. How did he get into
Speaker 1: this predicament?
Speaker 2: Have you ever been in a predicament, a bad situation?
Speaker 2: Have you asked yourself? How did I get here? People
Speaker 2: face difficult situations every day, and often they do not
Speaker 2: know how it happened they are in a predicament. In
Speaker 2: other Spotlight programs, we looked at Rick Warren's answers to
Speaker 2: difficult questions in life. Rick is a famous Christian leader
Speaker 2: and advisor. Today we look at some of his answers
Speaker 2: to the question how did I get into this predicament?
Speaker 2: Here is Derek's story.
Speaker 1: Derek was only fourteen years old when he joined a gang,
Speaker 1: a group of young people who perform crimes. They may
Speaker 1: steal cars, sell drugs, and even hurts other people. Gang
Speaker 1: members are often troubled young people. They may feel alone
Speaker 1: in life. They want friends. Derek was one of these
Speaker 1: young men. The gang members became his friends and he
Speaker 1: felt important. He felt that he was a part of something. However,
Speaker 1: when he was sixteen, his life changed completely.
Speaker 2: Derek was at a New Year's Eve party. He was
Speaker 2: there with his gang members, but an enemy gang was there.
Speaker 2: Two One of the enemy gang members, Tim, insulted Derek.
Speaker 2: Derek felt disrespected, and even worse, it was in front
Speaker 2: of his friends. Derek could not accept such a public insult.
Speaker 2: He remembers that time.
Speaker 3: My friends looked at me. I pulled the gun from
Speaker 3: under my clothes and Tim froze. He did not move.
Speaker 3: I liked the feeling I had. It was a sense
Speaker 3: of power. Tim begged and cried for me not to
Speaker 3: shoot him, but I pulled the trigger of the gun.
Speaker 3: He fell to the ground and my friends ran away.
Speaker 3: Then I understood that they were not really my friends.
Speaker 3: I stayed there alone. I waited for the police to arrive.
Speaker 3: Then I admitted that I shot Tim. Thankfully, Tim lived.
Speaker 3: The bullets missed his heart, so I was sent to
Speaker 3: jail for twelve years.
Speaker 1: That's nice changed Derek. He understood that the gang members
Speaker 1: were not truly his friends. He was all alone. Derek
Speaker 1: was in a bad situation. He was there partly because
Speaker 1: of his behavior, and he was there partly because of
Speaker 1: his friends. Rick Warren says that friends can be very important.
Speaker 1: Everyone needs friends. They can add such joy to life.
Speaker 1: They can also offer encouragement during hard times. True friends
Speaker 1: are there in good times and in bad times. But
Speaker 1: Derek did not find good friends. He found friends who
Speaker 1: influenced him to do wrong things, and they did not
Speaker 1: stay with him during his most frightening time. They were
Speaker 1: not with Derek when the police arrested him. These friends
Speaker 1: all ran away.
Speaker 2: Rick Warren believes that many people are in bad situations
Speaker 2: because of the friends they choose. Bad friends can get
Speaker 2: people into predicaments.
Speaker 4: He says, we are asking for trouble if we choose
Speaker 4: the wrong friends. Wrong values, and wrong ways of thinking
Speaker 4: will affect our lives.
Speaker 1: Rick believes there are ways to know if a friendship
Speaker 1: is good or bad. He says that bad friendships make
Speaker 1: people feel bad. They often find themselves doing things they
Speaker 1: do not want to do. They feel pressure from their
Speaker 1: friends to do these things, and these friends may try
Speaker 1: to control them through anger or fear.
Speaker 4: Rick says the kind of friends you should have will
Speaker 4: bring out the best in you. They will lift you up,
Speaker 4: encourage you, and make you a better person.
Speaker 2: Rick Warren says that another way that people get into
Speaker 2: bad situations is by repeating their mistakes. Often, they do
Speaker 2: not try to change when they make a mistake, They
Speaker 2: continue doing the same things over and over. Derek was
Speaker 2: in the gang for two years before he wanted to change.
Speaker 2: He did not want to change until the terrible shooting.
Speaker 2: That incident made him examine his life.
Speaker 3: He said the hardest part about being in jail was
Speaker 3: that no one cared. There was no one to tell
Speaker 3: me that I needed to change. I had no family.
Speaker 3: I sat in jail and kept thinking about my crime.
Speaker 3: I deeply regretted it, so I asked God to forgive me.
Speaker 3: I asked him to guide me down a different road.
Speaker 3: Then I wrote Tim a letter to apologize, and now
Speaker 3: we are friendly. We have both left the gangs. Also,
Speaker 3: I started reading in jail and I finished my high
Speaker 3: school degree. I made a change. Many people refuse to
Speaker 3: admit they need to change.
Speaker 1: Rick Warren agrees with Derek. He says that people need
Speaker 1: to learn from the past.
Speaker 4: We are asking for trouble if we refuse to learn
Speaker 4: from our mistakes.
Speaker 2: It is not easy to learn from mistakes. Many people
Speaker 2: do war want to stop what they are doing, but
Speaker 2: the problem is that they do not know how. They
Speaker 2: may have a physical or emotional dependence on something. For example,
Speaker 2: they may be drinking alcohol or taking illegal drugs, and
Speaker 2: some people simply cannot stop. For them, it is necessary
Speaker 2: to get support. They can get help at treatment centers
Speaker 2: and from doctors.
Speaker 1: Some people are afraid to ask for help. They feel
Speaker 1: that they have failed so many times before. They may
Speaker 1: think that it is too late for them. But Rick says,
Speaker 1: it is never too late.
Speaker 4: God can help us when we honestly look at the facts.
Speaker 4: He has not given up on You give him the
Speaker 4: pieces of your life.
Speaker 2: There is a way out of even the most difficult predicament.
Speaker 2: With hard work and with God's help, there is always hope.
Speaker 2: From what mistakes, have you learned something that made you
Speaker 2: change what you do? How important is it to have
Speaker 2: good friends? Tell us what you think. You can leave
Speaker 2: a comment of on our website. You can also find
Speaker 2: us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Blue Sky, and x. You
Speaker 2: can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android
Speaker 2: or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 1: The writer and the producer of this program are part
Speaker 1: of the Spotlight team. The voices you heard were from
Speaker 1: the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this program
Speaker 1: and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program
Speaker 1: again and read it on the internet at www dot
Speaker 1: Radio English dot net. This program is called The Predicament Question.
Speaker 2: We hope you can can join us again for the
Speaker 2: next Spotlight program. Goodbye, h