"What are you giving up for lent?," the pink-haired teenager casually asked me, while drawing another set of skulls on her arm.
Coming from a conservative Protestant background, I had never even heard of lent... until I started working with at-risk youth. Ironically, these youth, though far from God, had a staunch practice of giving up something (usually smoking and chocolate) for lent. I found this puzzling (especially if you can stop smoking for 40 days, why take it up again every year?) and they were horrified that a "real" Christian like me would be so clueless.
What emerged was a beautiful conversation where they were able to teach me about Christian traditions and I was able to connect some dots for them to make the practice meaningful. What a switch!
So often I find myself saying, "this will never work in the inner city." Sometimes I'm right; I've had years of experience in failing, after all! But there are often surprising moments, like learning about lent, where things I KNOW will never fly, are already firmly in place before I even arrived. I love these moments: seeds someone planted years ago, beginning to bear fruit. Now was my turn to water! It also inspires me for the future: I may not be in their lives forever, but the seeds I plant may be turned over to the next person for their role in the growing process.
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