Night Of The Living Brat 2: Juan and Ronald

A while ago I started this Night of The Living Brat series to depict rough situations I encountered on third shift with the kids. I can't promise it will continue long as I had only a couple written before leaving that particular job.  I'm actually returning to third shift at my new job this week, so who knows.  But here is the second installment for your reading pleasure. 

 

In order to simplify things, I will give kids fictitious names rather than just describe them in each blog. I’ll keep the same names to identify them and link to other posts involving them, just to make things more interesting for you, the reader.

I had no idea what I was walking into one Tuesday night when I arrived at work.  As I came down the hill I saw a head pop up in one of the windows indicating at least one of my kids was awake. I wasn’t concerned because based on which room it had come from I assumed it was a particular kid who I was used to seeing awake and having no trouble with.

When I arrived on the dorm I found out that some kids had moved to our dorm and that the kid I saw was one of them, a boy I’ll call Ronald. (More about “Ronald” in my earlier post, How To Get The Beatdown FromMr. Al)

Ronald was now roommate to Juan(featured in my first installment of Night of the Living Brat), who had been on the dorm for quite a while.  I was actually used to seeing Juan awake at the beginning of my shift, but he is normally not a problem.  And as for Ronald, when I had worked weekend nights on his old dorm I had gotten used to him being awake in his room at night without a problem. However, put two nightowl 11-year-olds in a room together and you’ll never get them to sleep.

Had it been a weekend night, I wouldn’t have been concerned about these two, but as they needed to be up for school in the morning they were going to need to settle down and sleep at some point.

From ten until eleven, I prompted them a few times to keep it down. As it approached closer to eleven it became apparent that these two would need to be separated if sleep was ever to come. So at eleven I told them I was going to need to have one of them come and bring their mattress out into the common area. I was going to ask Juan to do so because I was confident I could trust him to sleep out there without a problem. But Ronald volunteered. I was skeptical but decided to give him a chance.

Once Ronald brought his mattress out, he proceeded to refuse to follow any directions and became more loud and disruptive.  After a while he decided he wasn’t going to sleep out in the common area and went back to his room, refusing to come out. He also refused to bring his mattress back in. So Juan, who had been making a sincere effort to stay quiet and settle down for the past half hour, volunteered. Since Ronald wouldn’t go get his mattress, Juan said he would just sleep on Ronald’s mattress and Ronald could use his.

Ronald was not satisfied and kept running out to mess with Juan.  He tried to keep Juan from lying down and getting to bed, and was even trying to take the mattress back. At this point I paged my supervisor because Ronald was trying to start a fight and was beginning to wake up other residents. When Ronald lunged at Juan again, I got to him first and had to manhandle him to escort him back to his room (both Ronald and Juan-both only 11-tower over me by more than an inch).

I did get Ronald to his room and he was trying to push past me to come out. When my supervisor arrived I was still trying to keep Ronald in the room. Seeing two staff that were clearly on the same page about what he needed to do, Ronald finally gave in and stayed in his room.

As for Juan, I made sure to do everything I could to make sure conditions were ideal for him to get to sleep. And when he awoke in the middle of the night to use the restroom I helped him move his mattress back to his bed. Gotta appreciate the kids who show leadership among the others.

So, Just What Have You Been Saying, Al?

I work with children who are clearly broken. I doubt anyone would look down on them for their unhealthy reactions to the things they have been through. In truth, all of us are broken to one degree or another and react in unhealthy ways to our traumas. What we don't usually think about is that the people we judge and look down upon are also very broken, sometimes in more devastating ways than we could ever imagine.




We probably will never see what is below the surface of those people we look down upon and write off as not worthy of love. Oh, I know some people reading this are thinking "Oh, I don't judge anyone. I don't think I'm better than anyone." Let's be honest, though. We all do to an extent at times. It's human nature, and understandable when we look at the outside. Some people are just not very endearing or simply do reprehensible things.

Fortunately, God does not look at man in regard to the surface or our actions. He knows us inside and out. He sees the traumas and the pain behind our very worst actions. He understands more than we could ever know about ourselves, let alone those people we judge and write off as beyond love. He loves them just as much as He loves each one of us who feel we are the "worthy" ones. Our carnal perspective keeps us from understanding how unconditional His love is. We see people as worthy or unworthy of love (whether we admit it or not), good or bad, evil or divine. God sees all of us as His.




God has gone to great lengths to redeem our brokenness in ways that may or may not manifest within our lifetimes. He became one of us to take our sins, our death, and our brokenness--indeed our very humanity--upon Himself. He took it all and died with it, then resurrected us with Him as a new humanity. This is the gospel. His work is finished, whether we believe it or not. Those of us who believe benefit greatly from knowing what He has done, while those who do not know or believe cannot benefit despite it being just as true for them.

Because I have come to a different perspective of the gospel, the traditional Christianese often just doesn't work for me. When people hear me state things such as the previous paragraph, it's not uncommon for them to say "Are you saying everyone is saved?" or "Are you saying there's no Hell, or nobody's going to Hell?" I lose patience with these questions sometimes, but they're reasonable from the vocabulary of mainstream Christianity. I have to ask "What do you mean by 'saved'" or "What do you mean by 'Hell?'" Another question I'm often asked is "If God has already reconciled everybody to himself, why bother to preach the gospel?" Again, frustrating, but reasonable from the mainstream perspective.

This is why we spread the gospel--to tell the world that their sin, death, and brokenness has been redeemed by the Creator of the Universe. Some may never believe, or even be hostile and reject the very Truth, but that makes it no less true for them. It will only cause them great misery. Those are things that are objective facts, but cannot be experienced by us until we actually believe them. I work with kids who truly believe they are bad kids, or unloveable. As a result, they cannot receive praise easily for good behavior, or believe our care for them is sincere. They simply have believed lies about themselves they have been told repeatedly. The same goes for us as humanity. Until we fully come to believe we belong to God and that we have been raised to a new humanity through His resurrection, we will live as if we are slaves to sin. None of it is true, but it's very REAL to us because of the lies we have believed about ourselves.

Now about Hell. Some have accepted Dante's vision as if it's a part of the canon of scripture, despite scant scriptural evidence of that. Others simply believe Hell is eternal separation from God. I've come to believe something different. First, I believe it's completely impossible to be separated from God, who is omnipresent. Scripture also repeatedly tells us He will never leave or forsake us, and that we cannot be separated from His love. So, I've come to believe Hell is a self-imposed state experienced by those who refuse to believe or are actively hostile to the truth I've stated above and to God's all-encompassing love. I believe God will be showering His love on those miserable ones for eternity just as He will shower it on those of us who come to believe. It's just that to those who embrace it, it will be all joy, while to those who reject it, it will be all torment. Not imposed by God, but experienced by those who hate and reject His love. Will all of those eventually be won over by His love? I cannot know, but I certainly hope so.

So, are all saved? I guess if you mean forgiven, reconciled, and resurrected to new life in Christ, then yes. If you mean do all respond and accept that truth, thereby living in freedom, then certainly not. But don't think for a second that those people are any less loved, forgiven, reconciled, and alive than those of us who believe (and few of us, including myself, have fully come to believe the full truth, though we may be on the journey to having it become real to us). Let us forget the repeated lies we have been told and open our hearts to the truth of His gospel.

Not Abandoned

Hey folks.

I haven't blogged here in quite a while. So much has happened since I did. My Dad has been experiencing some health problems, so a few months back I decided to move back to the Cincinnati area to be closer to my parents.

I came out here in June to seek work in my field and had three interviews on that trip. The day after I returned to Kansas City, I received a job offer which I accepted after a few days of consideration. And then on July 8, in the wee hours of the morning, I drove out of Kansas City on my journey here to northern Kentucky.

I've now been on my new job for two weeks, and I feel so much that I fit in very well. I have a cottage with 6 wonderful boys who I've grown very fond of. Our current group is so much easier than the kids I've been working with, but that can change with the next admission. Nothing is certain in this field.

So I am hoping to reconvene regular postings soon. I do have some posts in reserve I can use, and some others that are in the process of being written. Just be patient with me, as you have. I'll be very grateful.