Hard and Healing

Last night LS YL hosted a hard and healing convo.  With two recent deaths in our community we felt led to host a place where we could have experts or experienced come share.  I will say that it was better than I expected.  Parents, student leaders, adults, and teachers came and dialed in.

I walked away reminded that being a teen is hard.  That they are often expected to be an adult and make adult decisions but their brain isn't fully developed and they are impulsive at times and overwhelmed.  I was reminded depression is real and not a thing kids can just "snap" out of.  I heard how important it is to be there for our teens.  To create a culture where hard convos are the norm.  A place where they belong and feel heard and valued.  Listen not dismiss their emotions and help them sort thru those often new feelings.

I know that teens need more that just caring parents they need caring adults... 5 is ideal!  That in order to make it thru these tough years students need 5 caring adults to be in their corner.  YL wants to be one of those!  We want to support parents and be team players.

My son Otto is three.  He said something profound a month or two ago.

He said, "Mom, look at the moon."  "It is so full of light."  "I know who lights up the moon."

I asked, "Who does buddy?"

Otto replied, "God does and I bet HE has so much fun lighting up things that are dark."

Otto gets it.  God does love lighting up things that are dark.  The light wins.  We want to be a part of the light.  Last night was a shining light moment.  Light won.  Healing won.  Hope won.

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."  John 1:5

Thank you to my friend Brad Edgar (now YL staff for Blue Springs) and licensed counselor for speaking truth and hope.  Thank you to Rick Mumford (KC YL Metro Director) for being a part of the panel and speaking life.  Thank you Jonathan Kindler (former YL kid, now licensed counselor in LS for speaking wisdom and heart.

I want to point you to resources!  I know that we need two things often in life:  1.  Jesus  2.  Counseling.  I would highly recommend Jonathan Kindler if you or your teen is struggling with depression/ anxiety / or just need a listening loving ear.

Jonathan Kindler- 816-892-0902
Serenity Life Resource Center
521 SE 2nd St. Suite C
LS MO 64063
kindlercounseling@gmail.com

Lotz Therapy
816-581-3737

Peace Partnership and Wellspring Ministries
816-886-0195
www.peacecounseling.org

National Suicide Prevention Hotline
1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Me too

LS YL has had the honor to walk with students and the community in this difficult time.  Our hearts break, we have cried with students for students, prayed with them and for them, listened, and continuing to create community around them.  They are not grieving alone.  They are surrounding one another, coming together, and able to say, "me too."  "I feel that too."  

Last night we had our weekly YL event called Club.  I had the honor to speak to students.  The message was simple.  Two words.

Me too.

I shared from the Magicians Nephew of the Chronicles of Narnia series an excerpt that symbolized this so well:  Digory is a young boy in this part of the story and he is about to lose his mom to a disease.  He begs Aslan (The Lion) for help.  

“Please—Mr. Lion—Aslan, Sir?” said Digory working up the courage to ask.  “Could you—may I—please, will you give me some magic fruit of this country to make my mother well?”

C.S. Lewis explains, “Up till then the child had been looking at the lion’s great front feet and the huge claws on them.  Now in his despair he looked up at his face.  And what he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life.  For the tawny face was bent down near his own and wonder of wonders great shining tears stood in the lion’s eyes.  They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory’s own that for a moment he felt as if the lion must really be sorrier about his mother than he was himself.”

“My son, my son,” said Aslan.  “I know.  Grief is great.  Only you and I in this land know that yet.  Let us be good to one another…”We do not grieve alone.

Those two powerful words are saying- ME TOO.  Jesus like Aslan is with is in our grief.  Sometimes we look at God like a scary lion, his claws, his power.  But if we LOOK UP we see He is with us and CRIES with us.

God is for you not against you! He did not cause you pain. He knows you pain and feels it. He also can do something amazing for our pain. He brings life to it. He takes it all on and uses it for good. You are not your pain.  You are a child of God.  You are his son or daughter.  He loves you and wants to take your pain daily and give your life.

Let us be good to one another…”We do not grieve alone.

Bronco Strong- Fox 4 News Clip