"Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature." 1 Cor 14:20
I walked up to the door, pushed the button. I was asked my name and my purpose. "enter and have a seat. some one will be with you shortly."
20 min later I was escorted to the cafeteria. stainless steel tables. no pictures on the wall. a broken clock.
another 20 min and there he was. dressed in the county issued jumpsuit. sad. hopeless. helpless. ashamed.
I woke up early yesterday with a feeling in my gut that something was gonna happen. even though i did not know what, I knew it would be bad. prayed up...for everyone who came to mind. my family, students, friends, whoever.
the feeling stayed with me all day.
I got the news around 2.
it is worse that i could have imagined. this kids life as he knew it is over. the likely scenario is he will not be free for many years.
be infants in evil.
this kid is about 1/2 a bubble off. just not right. but he is faithful. always here and always part. there is no way i would have ever thought what was going on.
simple. that is how my dad would have described him. surely, this one is an infant in evil.
there are certain things kids should not know about. yet, their minds are at ease with evil. thoughts turn into actions. now the opposite is true. infants in mature thinking, mature in evil.
the truth is the kid is guilty. simple or not. we have no place for those who did what he did. how can we?
as i looked in his eyes, there was no reality of his situation. shame yes, but manily cause he got caught. no real understanding of what lies ahead.
we talked about when he gave his life to Christ. he smiled. I reminded him about his security in that. he was not alone.
i told him even though his sin was deplorable, I loved him and would not turn my back on him.
we chatted for a bit. I prayed over him. he returned to his cell. I was escorted out.
i pushed the button again. name? Jeff leaving. he was staying.
i sat on my motorcycle for a bit and tears welled up in my eyes. and that feeling was back. it was as if he slipped out of my hands and off a cliff and I was watching him fall...unable to do anything but watch.
what is this grace? how can we ignore so great a salvation?
i have, in my life, used love as a form of currency (blue like jazz) giving out with great generosity to those who had earned it, being stingy and mizerly with those who did not.
Matthew 25:40 The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'
i am not al all confident in how to handle this. mom died 2 years ago. dad is a drunk. his childhood, if that is what it was, is over. juvenile detention and most likely jail is certain.
I should have hugged him.
he is no longer an infant in regards to evil. he lives there now.
I walked up to the door, pushed the button. I was asked my name and my purpose. "enter and have a seat. some one will be with you shortly."
20 min later I was escorted to the cafeteria. stainless steel tables. no pictures on the wall. a broken clock.
another 20 min and there he was. dressed in the county issued jumpsuit. sad. hopeless. helpless. ashamed.
I woke up early yesterday with a feeling in my gut that something was gonna happen. even though i did not know what, I knew it would be bad. prayed up...for everyone who came to mind. my family, students, friends, whoever.
the feeling stayed with me all day.
I got the news around 2.
it is worse that i could have imagined. this kids life as he knew it is over. the likely scenario is he will not be free for many years.
be infants in evil.
this kid is about 1/2 a bubble off. just not right. but he is faithful. always here and always part. there is no way i would have ever thought what was going on.
simple. that is how my dad would have described him. surely, this one is an infant in evil.
there are certain things kids should not know about. yet, their minds are at ease with evil. thoughts turn into actions. now the opposite is true. infants in mature thinking, mature in evil.
the truth is the kid is guilty. simple or not. we have no place for those who did what he did. how can we?
as i looked in his eyes, there was no reality of his situation. shame yes, but manily cause he got caught. no real understanding of what lies ahead.
we talked about when he gave his life to Christ. he smiled. I reminded him about his security in that. he was not alone.
i told him even though his sin was deplorable, I loved him and would not turn my back on him.
we chatted for a bit. I prayed over him. he returned to his cell. I was escorted out.
i pushed the button again. name? Jeff leaving. he was staying.
i sat on my motorcycle for a bit and tears welled up in my eyes. and that feeling was back. it was as if he slipped out of my hands and off a cliff and I was watching him fall...unable to do anything but watch.
what is this grace? how can we ignore so great a salvation?
i have, in my life, used love as a form of currency (blue like jazz) giving out with great generosity to those who had earned it, being stingy and mizerly with those who did not.
Matthew 25:40 The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'
i am not al all confident in how to handle this. mom died 2 years ago. dad is a drunk. his childhood, if that is what it was, is over. juvenile detention and most likely jail is certain.
I should have hugged him.
he is no longer an infant in regards to evil. he lives there now.
3 comments:
We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions—but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all. Msg. 1 Corinthians 8: 3 or so.....
praying for both of you....
what you did was love on him, even in all of his junk. you visited him in prison where he is hopeless, helpless and alone. not many would so much as send him an encouraging note, but you went in person to tell him you were not turning your back.
that was huge. what a heart you have.
(i know, this wasn't about you, but in all of this, you need to be encouraged as well...huge.)
we are taught to prefer the innocent over the guilty... but that is not the Gospel...
sure the sin is deplorable, as was mine... but there was a man there to visit me in jail, to teach me, to show me the love of Christ when all else had forsaken me...
you step outside the social norm by showing him love, and by this you show him the love of Christ...
as i read this i cannot help but remember my own state at one time and assure you that you mean more to that kid than you will ever know...
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