Somehow I’ve found myself in month eleven of the World Race, a mere 8 days from being home. My days consist of being a P.E. teacher, riding the public bus, reading Harry Potter, cooking and cleaning with my housemates, and processing the last eleven months with my two roommates. It’s a beautiful and perfect way to end the race. South Africa will be in my top three months on the race, although I would have never guessed sports ministry would be so enjoyable.
Walking into school on the first day, I had no idea what to expect, but it felt so good to be back in a school with hallways and classrooms. I can’t really explain why, but it just felt natural to be back in a school. We soon found out we’d be teaching every age from kindergarten to twelfth grade. As a team of ten girls, we soon got into a rhythm of action for each day. We had plans for the smaller kids and the older ones.
For the last week, we were running out of ideas for the older students, so I suggested a game I learned in college: Cross the Line. It’s pretty simple; you call out a life experience and anyone who has done it steps forward. Sometimes our students are pretty immature and disrespectful, so we didn’t know if they would participate well. However, it turned out very well and there were two things that stood out to me. When we asked the tenth graders, “If you’ve ever done drugs, step forward,” almost every single person stepped forward; it broke my heart for a brief moment. The other one takes a bit more explaining.
There are two white boys in the senior class who always sit in the back and refuse to participate; they’re like too cool for school. We barely got them to participate for the game before Cross the Line, but they stayed in the circle when we switched games. For the questions, “Have you ever struggled with depression?” and “Have you ever thought about or attempted suicide?”, one of those boys stepped forward. I don’t know why his step forward made so much sense to me, but it did. Here was a seventeen or eighteen year old boy who constantly put on the facade of being cool; he thought he was better than childish games, but he was hiding. He’s probably afraid of being hurt like he has been in the past. He probably thinks no one would understand his struggles, although someone surely would.
We all have choices each day to decide if we will “cross the line.” We can decide to confess a sin or confide in a friend about a current struggle. When we have the courage to cross the line, we see we are not alone. Even if someone hasn’t experienced exactly what you’ve gone through or nothing close to it, they can still encourage you; they can still be there to support you. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who confronts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
So I encourage you today to trust God with your problems and receive His comfort, so that you may be able to comfort others.
