It's Not You

Yesterday I spent many hours texting with a young lady. To sum up I spent most of the time trying to convince her of how much she'd changed in the last year. Then a few hours later I received another text from her.

Guess What!!!!?

What?

I've changed!

Okay, I agree but explain that to me.

Well... my friend, Megan, told me I wasn't the same person I was six months ago. And I realized she was right!

I had to laugh. That was exactly what I told her all day but for some reason her heart couldn't hear it at that moment or perhaps not from me. I am so glad she found hope yesterday even if it wasn't from me. We laughed about it today. I am so glad God doesn't need me to touch kids lives. I count myself blessed when he includes in the smallest detail of his work even if it's as a witness and not his star player. Here's to the benchwarmers!

She Wears Sunglasses At Night

The invitation to our last event read, "There is a lot of crap going on in peoples lives right now and we honestly don't know how to help so we're getting together Thursday night to moan, wail, shake fists at the heavens, to lift up our woes and our concern, and see what happens. That's what we will be doing and you are free to join in." Frankly, there were many young people I didn't expect to show up; I certainly didn't expect her to come.

She's a good friend, always helping others with their problems.

She's fun to be around, always laughing and smiling.

She's very responsible in all areas school, work, home.

She's got it all together but there are cracks... they're getting bigger.

She's always been a watcher, observing the spiritual rarely participating. That night as people placed objects in the centre of our circle, as offerings to God, she placed her sunglasses down saying, "These represent the mask I use to hide things"

I was in shock, I had never heard her so honest and vulnerable. I was overjoyed with hope for her. So much so, that at the end of the night we were asked to share one thing that gave us hope I couldn't help but point to her sunglasses as the object of my hope.

As I was getting ready for bed my phone buzzed with a text message. It was her again, "Thanks for you words today. They keep playing in my head. It meant a lot to me."

For list of other items placed in that circle see:
http://proyouthworker.blogspot.com/2009/07/reality-check.html