They come before me each day, the parents, and children. Frightened, ashamed, angry, or sad; sometimes all of the above all at the same time. Most of them, just hurting and broken souls, doing the best they know how to ease the pain they feel.
To each of them I say, look around at all these faces here on this screen. Each of the faces you see here represents a person who wants you to succeed. We will support you in every way that we can. But we can’t do the work for you. That’s something you have to do yourself. And I send them on their way at the end of each court hearing, hoping they find within themselves the strength, courage, and conviction to do the hard work that needs to be done, and that they find the right people to walk alongside them to provide positive support, and healthy accountability. I hope they find the community they will need to fight the battles they need to fight and conquer the demons who hold them hostage.
Yet all too often I hear stories like from a father last week. He doesn’t have anybody. He’s trying to do it alone. He has no friends. What is left unsaid is the fact that he is trying to do it alone because the people in his life who are his family, and the people he once would have called friends, are ones that would cause him to stumble and fall further than he has. He has no one healthy in his life to turn to when he needs support.
If only everyone who came into my court had more than just the people on the zoom screen to care if they healed; if only each of them had a support system of healthy loving people who they could turn to when times are dark. People who could lift them up when they have fallen, give them a little shove when their motivation needs a boost, be a person they could depend on to help them when they can’t do on their own what needs to be done.
And I question where is the Church? If Jesus taught Peter the way to show love to him was by feeding his sheep, where are the shepherds? Why are there so many who proclaim to be Christians who respond with closed fists rather than open hands, to those who falter?
Could it be that some of you have been called to walk alongside those who have nobody to walk with them? To show the love of Jesus in real and practical ways, by loving Jesus in the way he directed Peter to do. By feeding his sheep.
If you have a love for children, and desire to be a safe adult to a child coming from a hard place, and a desire to support a family as they do the hard work to recover and heal, might you become a CASA volunteer?
If you have available space and a willingness to care for a child in your home for a time, might you consider providing a temporary home to a child through the Safe Families for Children Program? If you have a desire to provide a home for a longer time, might you consider providing a family either temporarily through foster care, or forever through adoption?
If you don’t have time, but have extra monetary resources, might you consider donations of money or gift cards to your local children’s advocacy center, CPS agency, CASA agency, or an agency like Embrace, which provides practical assistance to families caring for foster children.
If you are a pastor or other church leader, could your church host a support group such as Celebrate Recovery, or NA/AA?
If you have the gift of listening and support and could be a positive connection for a parent, might you volunteer with New Day Services?
There are so many ways for the church to be the hands and feet of Jesus to hurting people. Might you be the somebody to a hurting person, so they no longer have to do it all alone?
Might you walk alongside a person who has lost their way, and be the shepherd Jesus calls us to be?
