There's Hope in There...Somewhere

I've written before about our ministry of walking through the darkness with our youth, or as we sometimes refer to it "place-sharing".This is, in my mind, what makes The Door Youth Centre an exciting and a slightly terrifying place all at the same time. This weekend was another one of "those" weekends, where it seemed like everyone who came through our doors had something weighing heavy on their minds and hearts.

There's one guy that we've been working with for at least three years now. He's a pretty cool guy, loves taking photos, and enjoys subjecting others to the "stupid test" on his ipod. Our relationship with him started when he was just entering high school, and we've walked with him through most of his life since then. The past year hasn't been easy on our friend. Things at home aren't always going well, and he holds a lot of resentment towards his single mom and sister. He's got an on again off again relationship with a girl (it's off again) that has been going on for a lot longer than most relationships but has moments of deep love and concern as well as those of conflict. In the past six months, we've seen this easy going kid begin to deal with addiction in his life, withdrawl from his peers, growing distance in our once close relationship, and a growing darkness in his whole being. This once bright light is now dimmed by anger, and hopelessness.

This weekend, his disposition and an incident that he had with another of our youth made me angry. I was angry at this young man for about thirty seconds, thinking "How the heck could he treat someone that he cares about this way? Why is he doing this?", and feeling confused and lost about how we could reach out to him. But very quickly my anger towards him changed, and I became angry at the people or circumstances that have caused him to react this way.

This is a young man with great potential. He didn't have great potential and lose it, he still has it. In our work with him from this point, we will be relying on God's leading to help draw some of those strengths out of him so that he can cope without substances, without cutting himself, without pushing those who care about him away - or whatever his deal may be. We know that God is able to redeem all of the dark areas in his life, even when we feel confused about why a young person has walked away. This is why we need people to come alongside youth at The Door, because working this stuff out alone is difficult alone. We all need somebody, and while we may be on a journey with this young guy for a good long while, we will always be here when he needs us. It's there...somewhere.