“Where were they? They can’t have just disappeared.”
Escaping with the giddy feeling of power in outsmarting their “jailers,” three students snuck off campus and headed for 7-Eleven three blocks away. An unlocked door beckoned freedom and they flung it wide.
Adrenaline high, they crossed a busy four-lane intersection. But instead of just purchasing a coke and reveling in their successful escape, they stole candy and high-tailed it out the door. But that little escapade wasn’t enough. Scheming for more adventure, they darted toward the fast food joint next door.
So after shoplifting—the next logical step in their crime spree? Steal a car of course.
But in their quest for wheels, a savvy manager nabbed them and locked them in her office. Busted. Discerning which school they attended, she called the principal to come get them.
Why she didn’t call the police?—Because they were second graders.
Can. You. Even…?
Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days were piling one upon the other for their teacher, my friend. A second-year instructor, she thought it couldn’t get any worse—from being cussed out by an irate parent who would take no responsibility in her child’s failing grades, to learning that her beloved mentor-principal was leaving for bigger bucks in another state.
These tiny escapees were her students, even though they were in another class at the time. And like relentless waves, one discouraging event followed another, as she labored in one of the toughest elementary schools in the city. A school chock full of children starving for attention, ready to do whatever it took to garner adult attention.
She is my hero for sticking with it and signing on for another year.
What happens when our life seems a continuous upstream paddle as waves of discouragement batter us numb?
When we feel lost and unloved like unwanted children?
When our days smell of unhappiness and despair?
We may not shoplift or try to steal a car, but we have other coping mechanisms. We chase happiness with credit cards as we “charge” through the mall. We numb our loneliness and pain with overeating, binge-watching the latest TV fad, and online shopping.
But the pleasures in life only last a second or five. I’m often like the child who clamors for the new, the shiny, the pretty. What gave me a high one minute, drags me down with guilt and disgust the next. I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten home with a sack of clothes and thought. Why did I buy all this stuff?
We are not children–cast off and unwanted, like barely worn clothes piled in the garage sale box.
We are children of the King.
We are beloved.
Jesus warns of trials, but He can handle what we cannot.
So batten down the hatches and keep your eyes on the prize,
You can do this.
Here are Five promises to tuck into your battered soul:
- So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
- I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:33
- But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Psalm 86:15
- See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1
- No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39
Keep the faith my friend.