Ten Random Thoughts I Live By (Sometimes...Usually)

1. They always catch the second person.
2. Sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission.
3. Where there's no fuel, the fire goes out. (This is not original with me. It's in the Bible somewhere. Proverbs, I think.)
4. If you don't work, you don't eat. (Also Bible.)
5. Not all problems can be talked out.
6. God thinks I'm a good idea. He thinks that about you too.
7. Being friendly with you makes us both feel better.
8. Be early. Then you own the room.
9. I'm responsible for being unconscious.
10. Some people really don't care what you think.

Waiting

I went to check on him, see where he is and what his sentence is. They dropped attempted murder to assault with a deadly weapon, and I felt relieved, but he'll do years. He's so young, so naive about much of life, and knows too much about danger and guns and grief. His grandparents are mourning. His grandma spends hours in church praying,...maybe that's why the charges were reduced. Just turned 16, this boy. I remember long conversations about what he hoped to be, maybe a therapist...he's sensitive enough, maybe a writer. But he's so addicted to the rush! Of danger, of crime, of drugs and running away, of handling life's problems with futile anger, in ways that don't relieve him, only create more problems.

Where are you, Lord, in all of this? I know you thought he was a good idea, that you admired his young life and took pleasure in his funny stories and even some of his naive ideas, and his great heart that didn't even realize how sensitive he is to other people, how thoughtful in unexpected ways.

What's the answer, I wonder? How to reach them? There are so many of them. And now talking with those who, past 18, have been locked away for a long time. Yet their faith has grown and their "inner sight" is strong.

When did we visit you in prison, Lord? When we visited them, cared for them. Thanks for these, whose faith is astounding, even while their lives are so bleak.