The Wayward Four

On a beautiful summer day, I decided to go to Summersville Lake.  I figured I would see some middle school and high school kids there.  It is a popular spot in the summer because there are cliffs to jump off and a trail through a wooded area, away from the mass of people.  Perfect spot for groups of teenagers to hang out and enjoy summer shenanigans.  So I set out with all my summer gear and a book to read.  It wasn't long before a few of my friends showed up at the lake.  We walked to the cliffs to go swimming and saw a few other high school students there.
  
I love the opportunities when I haven't yet been labeled the YL leader - when kids are still raw around me.  Not long after we arrived, four middle school boys showed up to the rock where we were hanging out.  They looked, acted, and sounded young; yet their actions were nowhere near innocent.  They showed up with no supervision and not in their 'right mind'.  A few of the high school guys sitting with us were praising them for being 'high', 'stoned', whatever you want to call it.  They snuck off into the woods to smoke more to stay 'numb' to life.  The language they were using was so profane.  F-word after F-word, insult after insult.  A line one of the kids said when someone told him not to get high was, "That's like telling a fat kid not to eat cake".  This is their lives. It's their norm.  It's their reality.

I share this because I had the opportunity to sit back and observe life as it is for them.  Honestly, I have a million different thoughts and feelings about what I saw that day.  I have struggled many times in life with being the Pharisee (looking in and judging without compassion).  Sometimes I go into parent mode (I want to step in and tell them to stop because of all the consequences).  The way that I view it as a lover of Jesus and lover of people is this: I want them to have LIFE.  I want them to see life clearly and to have joy without the 'help of a substance'.  The truth is the drug wears off and they feel empty at some point.  Maybe not today, but some moment some day.

I'm so thankful that Jesus himself said, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."  That is the mission - to seek and save the lost.  You know what, I can't save them.  There is nothing I can say or do to change the teenagers of today's behavior.  However, I know who can save them.  Jesus Christ, The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  John the Baptist didn't try to save his disciples on his own, he pointed them to Jesus.  John said, "He must increase, but I must decrease.”  

The "wayward four" is a small sample of the teenagers in this community and the country as a whole.  I have seen the wayward redeemed before - and I know he will do it again.  It is through loving actions, sharing truth, and praying persistently that Christ redeems.