A quick note.

A quick note about what I got to experience today. Today I took a two hour walk with a high schooler who hates God, at least the God he knew. He tried to commit suicide in elementary school, got sent away to a psych ward/school, came back, tried to strangle some kid, got sent back, and sometimes cuts himself today. He said that he felt like when he left the ward, that there was no follow up, that they didn't care what happened to him after that. They did there job and sent him off. The kid never knew his dad or even which one was his dad. Never even met one of them that had the possibility to be his dad. He tends to push people away when they get too close because people have only ever done nothing but cause him pain. God is not appealing to him because he saw God as an organized religion, consisting of a list of dos and don'ts, a God who squashes people like people do ants, one who doesn't care one bit about us. A judgmental-driven God. You want to know the most heart-breaking part about it is, the people who showed this God to him call themselves Christians. How dare he dress and act like that! The nerve! Turn from your ways or your going to hell! The "act this way or that" mentality teaches that a Christian is determined by deed and not the condition of the heart (by the way, not what Jesus taught). I heard his story and his frustrations and the kid had every right to view God that way. The whole saying about how we need to represent Jesus in the way we live our lives is NO joke. You could really lead someone to become a hater of God if you misrepresent Jesus, our God personified. The kid admits that he dresses the way he does and acts the way he does because that has always proven to draw dirty looks from people and push them away from him. Thank God, he has said the Bridge has totally rocked his world and completely changed his view on things. He's told me multiple times that for once in his life, people are accepting toward him. He can dress how he wants and act how he wants and no one bats an eye. He feels accepted as is and doesn't feel pressured to "put on a sheild," as he put it. My friends, this is Jesus... this is church. It ain't pretty, but it's church. We had the most amazing conversation and no he didn't "accept Christ", but that's not our burden to carry. Just show Jesus in all you do and that's all we are asked to do. This conversation is a building block and one that will be continued to be built upon our next conversation. Be Jesus.