Today’s Readings: Psalm 146; Exodus 12:14-27; Luke 11:37-52; Romans 11:13-21; Psalm 136
As some of you might know, I spent the first six years of my life following my graduation from college teaching English and Social Studies in a juvenile detention center. Lots of my friends and family members at the time wondered how I liked teaching in a correctional facility. My loved ones assumed I would hate the job since they thought a person like me – an overachiever raised in the perfect “Leave It to Beaver” household – would have nothing in common with the kids I taught. Despite our very different backgrounds and life experiences, I found that I did in fact have a lot in common with the kids I taught. One of the things was that we had a common fear. We both thought that we had proven ourselves unlovable – though in very different ways. They feared that their criminal offenses had made them unlovable; I feared that as a gay man I too was unlovable. Thankfully, I had my relationship with God to pull me through the dark times when that fear threatened to overwhelm me. I had the rhythm of the psalmist’s words from today’s first Psalm constantly resonating in the back of my mind – “[God’s] love never quits… [God’s] love never quits… [God’s] love never quits… [God’s] love never quits” (Psalm 136 from The Message). Those words got me through some of my hardest days. Sadly, so many kids today don’t get that refrain drummed into their heads, and they pay the price – they give up on themselves. Often they give up on themselves because their own local churches – the same churches that baptized and confirmed them – failed to live up to the most important promise they made to the child on the day of his/her baptism: to love him or her NO MATTER WHAT. My take-home assignment today is to find one child in your life – it might be your own child or it might be the child of a friend or family member – and teach the child the most important four words the child will ever hear: “God’s love never quits”. Follow the psalmist’s example and say those words over and over. The beauty of the exercise is that as you teach the child these four life-changing words, you’ll simultaneously be reminding another child of God of the transformative power of those words. That child of God? YOU! Til next time…
As some of you might know, I spent the first six years of my life following my graduation from college teaching English and Social Studies in a juvenile detention center. Lots of my friends and family members at the time wondered how I liked teaching in a correctional facility. My loved ones assumed I would hate the job since they thought a person like me – an overachiever raised in the perfect “Leave It to Beaver” household – would have nothing in common with the kids I taught. Despite our very different backgrounds and life experiences, I found that I did in fact have a lot in common with the kids I taught. One of the things was that we had a common fear. We both thought that we had proven ourselves unlovable – though in very different ways. They feared that their criminal offenses had made them unlovable; I feared that as a gay man I too was unlovable. Thankfully, I had my relationship with God to pull me through the dark times when that fear threatened to overwhelm me. I had the rhythm of the psalmist’s words from today’s first Psalm constantly resonating in the back of my mind – “[God’s] love never quits… [God’s] love never quits… [God’s] love never quits… [God’s] love never quits” (Psalm 136 from The Message). Those words got me through some of my hardest days. Sadly, so many kids today don’t get that refrain drummed into their heads, and they pay the price – they give up on themselves. Often they give up on themselves because their own local churches – the same churches that baptized and confirmed them – failed to live up to the most important promise they made to the child on the day of his/her baptism: to love him or her NO MATTER WHAT. My take-home assignment today is to find one child in your life – it might be your own child or it might be the child of a friend or family member – and teach the child the most important four words the child will ever hear: “God’s love never quits”. Follow the psalmist’s example and say those words over and over. The beauty of the exercise is that as you teach the child these four life-changing words, you’ll simultaneously be reminding another child of God of the transformative power of those words. That child of God? YOU! Til next time…
No comments:
Post a Comment