Hope

"People who claim to be without options are in actuality lacking hope."

Imagine you are in a room with 17 high school students ranging in age from 14-19 on the southside of Seattle. There is a tension in the room that is layered with sadness--at times it almost even reaks of distrust. When you look into their eyes it is at times as if one can see their spirit sinking into their bellies. It pains you from the inside-out; so much so that you can't help but want to reach deep down within them and pull them out, but YOU can't.

So, you pray. You ask God, "I can see that they are hurting. Often I hurt both for them and with them. LORD, please the violence. Please stop the killing. It seems that every time another young person physically dies another experiences a spiritual death. What can I do LORD?"

The LORD says, "Fellowship. Talk. Morn together. You all have lost. You all must weep. The you all MUST rise up together in my name and Spirit."

So, I call them together. They think that we are going to have usual days debrief. (They are the staff for the Urban IMPACT summer day camp.) Instead, I say, "Circle up. Closer. No, closer." They are some what anxious. I can hear the murmurs, "What the hell are we doing?"

I say, "I know that we are hurting. God knows that we are hurting. We need to talk about this. I am going to step out of the circle and you all start where you want to--with whatever you want to talk about."

They start...


A voice says, "You got to respect someone who is a drug dealer or a stripper. They pry feel as if they have no other option."

This was where they chose to start.

The conversation went for over an hour after work. Typically they are running out the door five minutes before work is over.

At the end of the conversation we concluded: "People are never without options. We always have some sort of choice, but it is when we are hopeless that we cannot see the options."

You can be so profound.