Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I
go. So and so is on the street again. So
and so is cold, and has no coal. So and so is angry. Drama. Drama. Drama. Just
a normal day at the office. I’m afraid I have become a little cynical lately. “Of
course, she’s drunk again.” “Not in school? Nothing to eat? Oh, well that’s normal.”
Although such a thought occasionally goes through my head, this is not how I
want to be. I want to be full of hope, optimistic, life giving. I want to
maintain that all things are possible. I want to dream her dreams. I want to
stand alongside her, be beside her. I want to be her cheerleader shouting, consistently, “You can do it.” I want to mirror the precious gem she is.
For the
last year, I have had three workers at our shop table working regularly. Over the
last month, all three have disappeared. Many days no one has been sitting
across from me. The grandfather of our
young high school student died, sending her into a drinking depression, and work
back on the street. Another lady is on vacation but called in Friday, so drunk
that she didn’t know where she was. The third woman has been suspended due to
her serious, unacknowledged alcoholism. This morning, two of these three women
called asking what time my church service began, and said they were coming.
I
confess that I had to rehearse how I would greet them. “Where have you been?
Are you crazy? Holing up in a hotel room, drinking, what were you doing? You weren't thinking! Wake up! Get it together!” were things I wanted to say. No
accident that my morning reflection happened to be about hope and grace.
“May the God of your hope so fill
you with all joy and peace . . . that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may
abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.” Romans 15:13 Amplified.
They slipped into the back,
having shown up late and didn’t sit beside us. After the service, I met them with hugs and kisses; warmly welcoming them with no lectures about past
behavior. Love in action was not hard. They inhaled the dumpling, eggs, coffee
and cake we shared.
We must offer hope. She has to
choose how she wants to live her life. She needs to take responsibility for
pursuing her hopes and dreams. But how can she know there are possibilities,
when she has been beaten down all her life? How can she have any hope, if those
standing around her have none?
