.png)
and the votes have been cast and the next four years have been decided and i need to remember that not all of life turns out like that.
tuesday nights are nights that he stays late, leads a bible study and then prays with the guys who stay after. and these young men - they are intimidating with their hoods pulled up and their hard eyes - them all lined up on the steps outside the door...
and it would be so easy to put them into a box and decide that they are destined for failure or gangs or crime.
isn't that what our inner cities are supposedly filled with?
but could we just open our hands and let go of our preconceived notions of those who we may not understand? because what we see today doesn't dictate what will happen tomorrow and the chaos of a moment is held still in very Hand of God. and that person in front of you may be working out a very real faith in a very real way...it just may not look the way you expect.
i'm learning that a mold is meant to be busted out of and the way i see faith being worked out and figured out and lived out in the lives of these kids down in the dark makes me laugh out loud with joy. what you see is truly what you get and i am willingly letting go of the ideal evangelical-cookie-cutter cut-out.
the dark is still so very dark, yes. and i sit up in the dark of the night praying over one who is so heavy on my heart, but even in the dark, He is quietly raising up a next generation to break through and to shine brightly and to be able to witness it from the beginning? it's worth everything He has asked us to let go of in the years leading up to today.
the lights of faith are flickering all around us - lets fan them with open hands and with mouths full of praise...
