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I’ve been keeping in mind that we are in the Easter season. Spring, a season of new life and new growth has arrived. The dead leaves are being replaced by new living leaves, even here in Southern California. And for us at VUMC, old ways are dying off and new growth is sprouting.
On March 22nd, less than three weeks after his 14th birthday, Jayshawn Covington, collapsed here on our campus and was taken home by God. I tried to help him hang onto life by administering CPR until the paramedics arrived. But, God’s call was too strong and Jayshawn left his body behind.
This was the last blow that finally brought me to my knees. Last month, you may have read about our confrontation with some youth who have been relying on our lack of supervision to use our campus for hanging out and being high and being hateful to others. Following a confrontation with them, my car was vandalized with swastikas and hateful words. The neighbors had finally had enough of these youth hanging out on the street and being an overall nuisance. The skate ramp had been closed for a few days by the Trustees and is now under a more restrictive use policy. On top of this, we’ve been trying to help some of our youth find a learning alternative because they cannot go to public school.
I felt like I was living the verse from the song, Change In My Life: “I’ve been lonely, I’ve been cheated, and I’ve been misunderstood. I’ve been washed up, I’ve been put down,and told I’m no good.”
Finally, I have come through the other side of my doldrums and can connect the second part of the verse to the first: “But with you I belong because you helped me be strong. There’s been a change in my life since you came along.”
There is a power inherent in being Christian and an Easter people. The power is that we can come through death to new life, not just literally, but figuratively. After the doldrums we can find the glory of the tough times.
What’s really great about this Christian response to trouble is that it works for clergy as well as laity. No trouble lasts forever, no death is final, no pain everlasting, no sorrow without the return of joy.
When we are young, pain is amplified, and time is slower moving. Everything seems to last too long. Many of our youth have a lot to deal with in their families, in relationships, in school, and with random violence.
I marvel at how much so many of them put up with and still come back and seek to be better and continue to do the right thing. They teach me about Easter, about resurrection, about the way of Christ.
I invite you to join with me in prayers for Jayshawn’s family, for our youth, and for us that we may be good enough to deserve them and nurture them and allow them to teach us.
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