No Quick Fixes

Every month, we on staff with 2nd Mile Ministries have a personal retreat day.  This is not an off day, but it is different from our normal responsibilities.  With so much going on at work, it is our intention to take a purposeful day to process how we are doing personally and how work has been going.  I often take these days to go on long walks, either on the beach, in a park, or on a frolf course.  These times of solitude have been great times to step back and pray and really enter into God's presence.  On my last retreat day, I answered the question, "Are there any roadblocks in ministry that you are facing?"  I chose to rather answer the question, "What is in your life life that has been wearing at your soul?"  My answer disappointed me.  My answer was technology.  In my down-time, my almost natural reaction is to pick up my phone or sit with the computer on my lap and just become a vegetable.  What's going on in the world's of the NBA, the NFL, the MLB?  What youtube video will satisfy my desires to laugh or be in awe?  What game on my phone will allow my brain to forget about the day's problems?

There's something satisfying in watching a time-lapse video of a plant growing.  Normally, we walk past trees, flowers, and grass and maybe we'll stop to smell the roses, but usually we proceed with whatever is on our schedule that day.  You might notice the sprout of a plant after a few days, but actually growth is hard to see.  Time-lapse videos help you see growth as if it were a moving living thing.  Reflecting every month is just a way to track growth or even places of no growth.

I fear for the next generation.  Delayed gratification is an unfamiliar term.  Why read a book when you can watch the movie?  Why waste time watching a 10-minute video when you could watch an entertaining Vine for six seconds?  Why meet someone for coffee and deep conversation when I could send a three-word-long text?

In the ministry world, I can have a similar hope to try and abbreviate or shortcut to get to the delicious fruit of ministry.  I hope for quick behavior changes when a kid acts out.  Can't there be a button I can push to make them smarter, more loving, more caring?  It takes time.  It takes even more time especially if those I'm ministering to are of a different culture, a different race, and/or different economical mindset or class.  

In keeping with my hope to introduce to you the kids of our program, I'd like you to meet Chassidy.  She is in 5th grade and is one of two students that have been in the after school program since the beginning.  She was only in 2nd grade at the time.  This is her first school year without her older sister Charity at school or in the program.  Without giving too many details about what exactly she has gone through in her life already, just know that there's a good chance that it's much more complicated and difficult than your childhood was.  I am amazed at how much she's grown the past few years despite having so many life changes thrown at her.

Chassidy in front of me in the red shirt back in spring 2012

While volunteering at North Shore Elementary three years ago, I used to occasionally help a 2nd grade teacher named Ms. Beam in her classroom.  Ms. Beam was Chassidy's 1st grade teacher the year previous and she would tell me that Chassidy would often get sent to the principal's office, have to take timeouts in other teachers' rooms, etc.  Her behavior was reflected in our after school program often.  When she was in 3rd grade, I remember a couple times where she couldn't handle any kind of correction or discipline and thought there was no other alternative but to scream, kick over chairs, scratch, bite, anything to get away or feel safe.  I'd never seen kids do the things she did.  Fourth grade comes along, the chair-kicking ended, the screaming too.  In fact, the problem in her 4th grade year was really just talking back and the occasional attitude.  Oh yes.  She is probably the most vocal child I've ever seen.  Also, the loudest when she wants to be.  Probably the most encouraging thing I've noticed over the past few years has been her focus, attention, and retention of Bible lessons and verses.  Her hand was always up when a review question was given during a Bible lesson.  Her understanding of the gospel has skyrocketed in even just the past year.  I've heard her show compassion to others in the program that were going through something tough at home that she has experienced already.  Last year, a girl was crying because her electricity had to be turned off.  Chassidy consoled her and looked at one of our staff saying, "It's her first time," meaning her first time with the electricity cut off.  Chassidy has experienced cut off water, electricity, times with little food, and yet can see that God has blessed her.  Amazing!  She helps younger kids with their homework.  She loves reading with the younger girls and help them grow.  She loves to sing worship songs with as much heart as she can, despite the skill of her voice.  You can see a desire for justice in her that she gets very upset when she feels she or someone else is being wronged.  She stands up for others and is very defensive of those that get picked on.

Chassidy's baptism

Recently she has moved around a lot, staying with friends, her dad, and even with some in our ministry over the summer.  All these adjustments can mess with a kid's sense of safety, protection, and comfort.  I'm happy to say she and her sister are in a stable situation now, able to see their dad whenever they want and not having to worry as much about lack of food, water, or electricity. 

A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of watching Chassidy, among four other elementary and middle school students get baptized.  It was great to see her dad and sister in attendance as well as many in the church and ministry that have known and supported her for years.  No matter how slow it might seem, God does work to transform those that he would call his own.  It was a beautiful thing to witness.  It's hard to tell in the picture on the left (because of the shortness of the pastor), but Chassidy has grown so much.  We rarely do push-up competitions, but when we do, Chassidy is the only one (including the boys) that can do any with proper form.

Websites are bombarded with unwanted advertisements promising the next get-rich-quick scheme or a pill that transforms you from a hippo into the hulk.  The Lord of the Rings trilogy would've been terrible if Mordor was in Frodo's backyard rather than across the entire Middle Earth.  I'm not going to get any endurance by running one time every year.  There's something about work, about relationships that grinds us into who we will one day be.  Proverbs 27:17 says, "Iron sharpens iron, as one man sharpens another."

If you are a person who prays and doesn't just say you'll pray for someone, please hear these requests.  Please pray that Chassidy continues to grow as a leader, a Christ-follower, as a student, a friend, and a sister.  Please pray for me to get off my phone, get off the computer, and make Christ my pursuit when I have downtime.  Worldliness is a deadly distraction to our relationship with Christ.  I feel it is the devil's most deceitful way in getting us to think that we are comfortable, blessed, and more important than others.

TTYL