“We lost another kid,” began a text I recently received. I caught my breath because, regardless of details, I knew what the text meant….a kid was dead.
“Another bullet intended for someone else,” the text continued. “Two cars were under fire. His best friend watched him die in the front seat of the car…All of these boys are close to my heart. They are good kids that have some bad habits. Will you please pray that they don’t waste this tragedy?”
To my knowledge this event was not covered on the local news.
But it made headlines in heaven – a kid went Home because someone had shared the message of the Gospel with him when he was younger and he believed. He was a good kid. He was a kid who knew a Savior. He was a kid whose earthly life was cut short by violence in the inner-city when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time with some of the wrong people.
There was a funeral service attended by many young people who knew him…these were the ones we prayed would not “waste the tragedy.” During the service and the days following, these young people were presented with a challenge to make life changing decisions and leave some “bad habits” and “bad associations” behind and pursue the purposes of God in their lives. It’s a message some of them had heard before – but kids always think they have more time.
This is a scenario I have witnessed many times over the past 28 years of living among the poor and fatherless. The loss is heartbreaking. The trauma is suffocating. The senselessness is devastating. Sometimes it makes those of us who live laid down lives for these kids want to quit. But it is also what motivates us to never give up sharing a message of hope, purpose, abundance, and the love of a Father with kids who seem to have everything stacked against them. We cannot let heartbreak, trauma, and devastation win.
“How can they call to Him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed? And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news!” (Romans 10/GNT)
Oh, how we need messengers with good news for children who are trapped in poverty, chaos, and fear! And how desperately the messengers need the senders to make their ‘wonderful coming’ possible. The messengers, the senders, and the Spirit of God – a cord of three strands that is not easily broken. The lives of the poor and fatherless can be changed forever with that cord.
Like the rest of us who make commitments in times of tragedy, some of the young people traumatized by this event may soon forget their decisions, but I pray that for some the tragedy will not be wasted.
~LTA~
CROSSFIRE