God Talk: Inside the RAV—Change

Keeping Hope Alive

Emily Dickinson calls hope “the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,” but I wonder if Emily Dickinson ever spent time inside a juvenile correctional facility. I wonder if she ever looked into a 16-year-old’s empty eyes and tried to convince her to keep hoping things would change. I wonder if she ever knew a teen who gave up hoping and decided to exit the world the only way he knew how. I wonder how many kids she talked to who self-medicated with the popular street drug of the day in order to cope with the inevitable pain of hope disappointed. For many of the kids we see, hope may indeed be a “thing with feathers,” but it took flight long ago and left their souls empty.

Jesus met many people just like these kids: a woman at the well who had lost hope in relationships and in herself. A man in a cemetery who dared not hope to regain his sanity. Two sisters whose hope had died along with their brother. These were real people who were filled with new hope after just one encounter with Jesus. Today Crosswalk is tasked with sharing that same new hope with kids whose hearts need healing: Mitchell whose parents have called him “worthless” so many times that he believes it. Roger who told me last week that there are times he just wants to “go cold-hearted” because there’s no hope for change. Allison who always wears long sleeves to cover up the scars on her arms that scream, “Hopeless!”

One encounter with Jesus still changes lives and gives new hope. Our part in that process is clear in Paul’s letter to the Romans. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). Trust in Him and overflow with hope! Peter echoes that idea in I Peter 3:15. “Always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you.” (Are you catching on to the theme here?) People need hope to survive. Not the hope of the world that crosses its fingers and wishes for the best, but the hope of Jesus Christ that lifts us up to walk on stormy seas with Him in peace toward eternity.

Almost every day Crosswalk volunteers in the trenches with these kids are given opportunities to share a reason for our hope and spill that hope all over them. What a joy to watch as they encounter the love of Jesus and allow themselves to believe in hope once again! WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS to join us in this mission. Want to share the hope that is in you? Go to crosswalkusa.org to sign up or to make a donation so this mission can continue and reach more kids. They need you; we need you! Thank you for partnering with us to restore this “thing with feathers” to its rightful place on the perch of these troubled souls.

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