Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Appointment (02/09/12)
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TITLE: Destiny Dates | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laury Hubrich
02/16/12 -
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If it were up to me, I wouldn’t arrange these little moments in time…these twists of fate…these bumps into chaos. Not at all. Definitely out of my comfort zone, high school is.
Eight A.M. will find me with my first brush with chaos. A couple of very strange travelers, not quite fit for earthly habitation, enter and smile at me. “What brings you guys to earth today?” I ask.
They have some fantastic tale that captures my imagination. I accept them for who they are, kooky as they may be, and enter into their play. Actually, I started this pretendness. One has hair in his eyes, almost to the chin and extremely skinny. The other, a vertically-challenged, red-haired young man who wears shorts year around. He squints into the sun while declaring his nocturnal-ness. See? Strange appointment, but fun.
I walk through the Commons and pull pony tails, lay my hand on shoulders, pause and ask how things are when I catch a sad eye. I may sit down and listen. The stories I hear tear at my heart. I want to help but don’t know how. No one knows, and please don’t tell, but when my hand goes on a shoulder or the head, I’m praying. Shhhh….
Algebra, first hour – is my appointment with a guy that doesn’t want me to bother him. Jordan’s words slice at my heart, but I continue to reach out, not because it’s my job but because I truly care.
I intersect with two teens, a male and female, who are confused about their sexuality. The male is wonderful…and the girl, she’s so real with me. She argues yet shares her heart. What a relationship we have. I cry out to God, “Why me?” So far, I haven’t heard an audible answer so I press on. These teens continue to grow closer to me and I to them.
Another girl was too embarrassed to tell me she was pregnant. We’ve gone back several years now, and she knows my beliefs. I wasn’t with her the beginning of the year. I was somewhere else the first semester. I thought it was where I was supposed to be and I truly loved it. While there, God set up different appointments but then it got ripped away. I griped and complained, but then I settled in to this new/old routine. I was back where I belonged and I realized I missed a whole bunch of appointments. Who was keeping them when I was away? It makes me wonder if maybe I wasn’t following God’s will when I took the new position, you know? How many appointments did I miss? Maybe it wasn’t God’s will. All that matters is now, I suppose. I watch Sara’s baby bump grow each day as we talk.
I hang out with some of the toughest of kids. We laugh and I convince them they should probably do their homework and study. They teach me things too; unfortunately, it’s not always things I want to know.
They teach me about real life. How life isn’t fair. They live in a world where parents drink, do drugs, and share bad attitudes. Some don’t know the basics of the Bible and believe in Jesus as much as they do Santa Claus. They have no desire to rise up out of poverty and do better than their parents. Many of the teens have spent time in jail. That’s their life. No big deal to them yet my jaw drops. I’m brushing up against convicts? My knees shake a bit…God?
These teens/convicts/illegal aliens, these crazy adolescents, are a piece of my life-line to God. I truly love them. I love my job. I don’t get paid much. I’m not their parent. I’m not their teacher. I’m just…Who am I kidding. I don’t know who I am except one of God’s servants keeping some appointments.
I said these destiny dates weren’t grand. I was wrong.
“Hey.”
I scoot my lunch over and Tricia plops her English paper on my desk.
Since I was in my room, she knew my ‘office’ was open.
Hmmm…just like you, God. I like that thought. Just like You… I don’t know how long I’ll be allowed to minister to these kids, but, “Here I am Lord, please keep sending me.”
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