He Waits There

For the past two years, I have been part of a ministry that reaches out to incarcerated youth in my area.  Once a month, I get to have a chance to sit in a small group of girls who are serving time.  In that hour I listen to them, I pray with them, I share the Word with them, and, hopefully, encourage them.  I hear hard stories, get hard questions, and deal with hard emotions.  It's never easy there, but it's always beautiful.  I've gotten to witness first hand the softening of hearts, forgiveness, reconciliation, and even salvation.  Works that can only be done by The Almighty. 

Last night we looked at the parable of the talents in Matthew.  In this parable Jesus was teaching about three servants who were all given money by their master.  Each one of them was expected to keep the money until the master's return, upon which the master would be asking for it back.   Two of the servants took the money given to them, invested it, and doubled the amount.  One servant, out of fear, took the money, buried it in a hole, and then waited for his master to return.  When the master returned he was elated with the news that two of his servants doubled his money while he was away.  However, when the third servant announced that he had done nothing with the money entrusted to him, and returned the original amount, the master was furious with him.  He took the amount entrusted to the third servant, gave it to the first servant, and threw the third servant out of his house declaring "If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least?" (Matthew 25:26)

As the girls and I sat and discussed this parable, told thousands of years ago, and what it could possibly mean for their lives now, here in 2013, I could see one of the girls go deep into thought.  She sat and remained silent for a while.  Fearing I had lost her attention somehow, I asked her if she had any thoughts to what the parable was teaching her.  She responded with this:

"I think that God gives us all these opportunities, and He expects us to use each opportunity wisely while we are here.  When we waste opportunities, abilities, or the things He has given us, it makes Him sad."

She paused, staring off into nowhere, just long enough for us to notice a break in her words, but not long enough for me to ask another question, or elaborate on what she had said. 

She continued with, "I've been wasting my time before coming here.  I think I've been given many chances to do wonderful things, but I chose not to.  My mom and my grandma have been trying to encourage me in who God is and the plans he has for me, but I ignore them.  So I think He brought me here so I would have to sit still long enough, and away from all the distractions, to find Him.  I've noticed since being here, that a lot of people have been asking me to pray for them.  If I wasn't here, I wouldn't even consider it.  Now that I am, I do.  I didn't get to be released when they said I would be.  I was very disappointed, but now I think that I needed to be here to continue to know Him more."

More silence.

"I don't want my time here to be a waste.  I'm tired of wasting my time outside of here too."

And like that, I once again got to see Jesus meet someone face to face.  In jail.

Isn't it just like Jesus to wait for someone there?  A King who came to this earth not to be served but to serve.  A King born to an ordinary woman in a feed trough.  Not in a palace, not to royalty, and not with any sort of special ceremony.  A King who spent his time not with the most important people, but with the most unnoticed people.  People who were sick and dying, people who were outcasts, people who were criminals.  A King who came to be with the "least of these". 

When I think about Jesus, who He loves, and how He serves, it makes sense to me that He'd wait for this girl there.  In jail.  That terrible, cold place.  That place full of people who are outcasts, who society frowns down upon or even purposely looks away from.  A jail where few acknowledge  (or know) who He really is and how loved they are by Him.  When I really think about who Christ is and what He came to do, it makes perfect sense that He wouldn't hesitate for a second to sit and wait for people there.  No one is too lost for Him to love and no one too low for Him to serve.

These things that God has allowed me to see and be a part of, thrill me to no end.  They deepen my roots of faith, and they make me fall deeper and deeper in love with Him.  Him, who chooses to go to the ugly places, the most hurtful times, and patiently wait there.  A King.  In those places?  My heart could burst.

^" Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?”
^" Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”--Matthew 9:10-13 The Message