Lent in the Inner City

"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.