hard truth

A note came through my inbox the other day to let me know that a student was moving. When I asked him about it today, he said... "yeah. I'm moving to Chicago. My mom has a boyfriend." Later I was talking to a co-worker and her only comment was "they'll be back." She explained that regularly when students move, they return later in the year.

It's heartbreaking, honestly, that I cannot think of a single student out of the nearly 250 that I see every week who come from homes where their father and mother live and function together, where home is complete, happy, safe, and whole. I'm sure there are a few, but every single student who I know anything about comes from a broken family.

It's also heartbreaking to know that I can do so little. The hard truth is that redemption from this cycle can come only in the form of salvation through Jesus Christ... but in order for that to happen... Jesus Christ has to be visible in me. And that is just scary.

We were challenged on Sunday morning in Princeville: Could you tell someone, like Paul did in Philippians 4:9 - "those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you"? If people were watching me, would they find Christ?

It's a thought provoking and convicting question in wake of a rough Monday at school... a place where, more than anything, my students need to see Christ in me.

I was reading in John 4:34 today Jesus' words: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." I don't understand people's lives. I don't understand how to help. It's all so overwhelming that its tempting to do nothing at all. But 'finishing His work' ultimately means proclaiming His name with every step that I take, and to realize that in my weakness, His witness is strong.