Daily Lesson for June 19, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Matthew 18 verse 10:

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."

This past week I was at youth camp, serving as camp pastor for about 150 kids. During the week a kid from another one of the churches in our association kept coming up and wanting to talk with me. He was 14 and a little awkward, not quite having anything to say to me and yet sort of hovering around me as I spoke with others. When he wasn't with me or one of the other adult sponsors, he was usually alone, set apart from the other teenagers and often playing a video game on his phone.

I confess that something in me kept being a little annoyed or disturbed by this kid. Conversation was cumbersome - not smooth. I could feel that he felt odd and I felt odd around him. Yet, I kept telling myself to be open, to be present, and to receive him. As I felt his hovering around me, I kept telling myself to turn towards him.

On the third night of camp, after I preached about Nicodemus finding the courage to walk out of the darkness of his shadows and into the light, this kid came up to me and asked if he could talk with me because he wanted to ask me a question. At lunch the next day we set together and he asked me his question. "How do you come out of your shadow and make friends?" he asked. I knew there was a lot of pain and a lot of rejection behind that question and we spent the lunch talking about what he feels when he is in groups - the awkwardness and the oddity. I told him that I felt that same awkwardness when I was a kid and in college, and all the way through seminary, and and that, well frankly, I still sometimes still feel it now. I told him its why a lot of people turn to drugs or alcohol - because it eases the odd feeling. And it works - for a little while. But, I shared, the key I have found that is a whole lot better is to keep showing up. "I am trying to be present," I said, "I am trying to learn to embrace the awkwardness and live into it, to inhabit it - rather than trying to escape it through booze or pills or a video game." He shook his head and smiled sheepishly when I said video game. It was a good conversation and I hugged him after. "Just show up," I said.

On the last night of camp there was - like there always is - a dance. The awkward kid walked in and I was more than a little surprised to see him actually on the dance floor and not out on one of the couches in the hallway. He was out there; and he was dancing - in the circle. And he looked like he was having a hell of a time. At breakfast on our last day I saw him. "Hey, I saw you out there last night," I said. "You did it man; you showed up." He smiled that same sheepish smile. "Yeah," he said, "I showed up."

"Do not despise the little ones," Jesus said. For, as Atticus Finch put it, "It is a sin to kill a mockingbird." Do not despise them, do not reject them, do not add to the wounds the world has already inflicted upon their soul. Do not kill them. Let them in; let them show up. Let them come out. You'll be glad you did.  

I sure am.