I've been around a group of young people lately that seem totally lost. They don't know they are lost and they don't seem to care. Their lives are filled with drama and crisis, arguments and fake friendships, drinking, drugs and sex. To reach these kids would mean that I would have to be in their world continually, looking for ways to show them God's love, listening without judgment, and willing to invest my life in them but they will not allow me to get that close.
One of these young people lost his job. He is a hard worker, has his own apartment, supports his younger brother, and still parties with the best of them. He is not evil, just misguided and trying to survive his past. He told me, in an unprotected moment, that he is jealous of his sister because she seems to have her life together with God and he would like that. And the moment was gone.
I knew he had a new job but wasn't going to make his rent. He worried about taking care of his brother. He pawned his guitar to buy food but just told me that one does what one has to. He seems different than the others. He remains optimistic that he can work hard and that things will turn out okay even as he is days away from not paying rent.
My husband and I set aside money to help wherever God may lead. It seemed that this was the place. We asked him if we could pay his rent this month and he cried. We told him that the money was set aside for God to use and, so, God must care for him, want a relationship with him and has a plan for his life.
Will this bring him to the Lord? We don't know but I do know that we had the opportunity to show God's love and these kids desperately need to know they are loved. They need hope and light and a vision of how life could be different. They need Jesus.
When I am near them, my heart hurts, my spirit is saddened. But God finds ways to reach into their world to touch their lives and was able to use us this time. We pray that what He allowed us to do with this young man will move him closer to being able to find his true life in Christ.
recently i was with a group of pastors from several churches. we shared a really moving, deep movement during a devotional, as we explored the fact that a true vision given by God is never unaccompanied by a sense of burden. there is a quality of heart-break even in the most positive vision--the glory of God's purpose combined with the deepest possible awareness of what it would mean for His dream not to be realized. i think what you encounter when you're with these dear lost people is just that--the vision of the life God designed for them, longs to give to them, accompanied by the knowledge of what will continued to be sacrificed if they don't receive that gift. hopefully this young man God served through you will be drawn to Him. and maybe then God will be able to speak through him to the others. maybe he'll be the one to bring Jesus into the group. like a stone dropped into water, the light of God's touch could ripple on far beyond what is seen right now...
because that's how He rolls.
Posted by: zanne | December 03, 2007 at 09:17 AM