Drama

We have a saying around the centre that goes, "Save the drama for your mama". We use it sometimes when tensions are rising because tiredness and circumstances edge life's problems from speed bumps to impassable mountains. This week has been a very dramatic week.

These are the weeks that are emotionally exhausting, as youth after youth have called us with issues that they can't seem to face. Some just need someone to listen. This week, many needed a solution. We talk often about hope, and this is pretty much the polar opposite of hope. The weeks where we see and hear despair in the lives and voices of our teens are the weeks where "save the drama for your mama" just doesn't cut it. Instead, the drama requires a patience that is beyond what any of us have to step into the mud, and get a little bit messy. It's never black and white, always heavy to carry, and often doesn't work out in the clean way we feel it should.

Inevitably, somewhere in the course of our discourse and Facebook chats with our youth, we are again reminded about the drama in our own lives, and what little we can really do for our youth. We can give our best efforts, but our own brokenness often limits us in our attempt.

But I think it can be redeemed.

In our brokenness we join our youth on the trail. We join every other human on the trail, because we are all broken, and sometimes don't know what to do. In understanding our brokenness, we also come face to face with our need for God, Who (this still astounds me), meets us right there, dirty and smelly as we are. In one of my favorite books, Messy Spirituality, Mike Yaconelli writes,

"Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection. The way of the spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives. Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God’s being present in the mess of our unfixedness."

And there it is, that beautiful moment, where in the midst of chaos, and breakups, and fights, and missed classes, that moment where we may not have all of the answers but we sure wouldn't want to be anywhere else to deal with it. Sometimes it is uncomfortable to get here, but if it weren't for the moments of despair, real or imagined, I think it would be hard to appreciate the incredible grace of God. So we hope, that after a good night's sleep and some time to withdraw from the crisis that never seem to stop this week, that in allowing our youth to be broken and in the admission of our own brokenness, that we can demonstrate a love that never leaves. It is certainly a love that can only belong to God, because it is so far beyond what we are able to demonstrate. And we remember what a privilege it is to be allowed into these worlds, as confusing and messy as they are, I don't know we'd want to be anywhere else.