I am the last person who should be surprised by a young person. I interact with them often. I hear their stories. I see them rise to challenges with grace and poise. I tell other adults that they should have for faith, belief and trust in young people.
But today I fell into the trap. I let me eyes fool me. I missed it.
We spent the day on retreat with 113 ninth graders. A good time was had be all (or at least most).
Simple day. Opening prayer. Icebreakers and small group. We did a presentation. Lunch. More activities. Us again. Closing prayer.
They were a lively group. Lunch was a challenge. There was no microphone in the hall were we had lunch. Giving instructions was a chore. At one point, one of the teachers said, “If you offered this class a million dollars to stop talking, they wouldn’t do it.”
By the time we had gotten to the second presentation we has sufficiently blurred the lines between audience and stage. Our goal, but sometimes it is hard to reign them back in to do the meaty stuff.
Not that this is bad. We want energy. We want participation. But sometimes a 14 year old boy doesn’t know where the line is.
That is fine. We expect that.
To start the second session we opened the floor to questions and answers. One particularly kinetic young man asked lost of questions. He also had a comment or two for may of the things we said.
As time was winding down we had a chance for a few more questions and there was only one had up. His.
So, I called on him.
His question was something like, “You know the story were the rich man asks Jesus what he needs to do to get into heaven and Jesus tells him to sell everything? Why do we have all these beautiful churches and huge organs and million dollar things. Shouldn’t we sell all that stuff and give it to the poor in Africa and here?”
Translation, “How do we live this faith we profess?”
I missed it. I never would have guessed that is what is going on in his head and heart.
Good for him.
Shame on me.
[join me today]