Run

"One of the sixth grade boys brought a friend," the middle school pastor mentions it as we're closing up our leaders meeting Sunday morning, passing on what little backstory the parent gave, so that the guy leaders can carefully pull him in, make sure that he gets connected somewhere in our sea of faces. 

It's one of those stories that remind us just how much hurt some of our kids have seen, one of those that freezes a few of the leaders in their tracks, minds spinning to come up with a strategy. As things turn out, he came with Dyl*n, so my boys introduce us before anyone else can get close.

"Watch this." I hear M*t** tell the kid who is following at his shoulder, and I know what it is that he wants. "That's Jessica." My back goes to him under the pretense of watching the game in the octagon. He 'sneaks' up behind me and shoves, just hard enough to set me off balance, and then takes off running, grinning like a banshee.

He's pro at this, almost scary good at distracting trauma kids, reading their moods, pulling them in deep, making them feel safe and accepted.

I chase him.

I chase M*t** and Dyl*n and Ry*n and their friend. Even N*c jumps into the middle, sending me skidding along the floor as he rolls away, and P*rk*r laughs from the sidelines. Over and over again we play this game. Sneak. Shove. Run. Chase. Catch. Torture. Release. There are more of them than me, and they come back time and time again.

Sneak. Shove. Run. Chase. Catch. Torture. Release, until we are breathless and laughing and the youth pastor is calling everyone together.

"That was good of you," one of the older leaders comments as we shift gears, "to have fun with them like that."

There is a probing curiosity in his voice, perhaps wondering if I am only chasing and catching and generally looking like a fool because we were instructed during the leaders' briefing to "have fun with the kids." And, I find myself trying to explain the unexplainable in ten seconds or less.

This is how we build trust. For these sixth graders, this is part of how you make their world seem safe - predictable, responsive to their agency. This is one of the languages that they speak. 

We're in the middle of something, not at the end of it, and every single one of us is learning as we go. For now, I'll be hands and feet and this curious leader will be the mouth. I'll draw smiles out of the new kid with the incomprehensible past, and he'll give next week's lesson.

Ascension comes next Sunday, and they'll start to let go a little bit, start to buckle into a new way of doing things. But it's not here yet. So, in the meantime, like the disciples might have, if they were really as young as some people say, we run and laugh and make the most of moments while they last.