Saturday Night: Be Careful What You Pray For

Saturday Night

Butch’s tip for the day: Don’t challenge God. You might actually get what you asked for.

I’m referring to last night’s prayer for God to do something extravagant on the first day of Culpeper Epiphany 16 inside the Culpeper Juvenile Correctional Center. Thirty young men – many of them violent offenders. And 26 adult teamers from a wide variety of ages, genders, skin tones and religious backgrounds.

I’d heard yesterday about a young man who is a “cutter”. A cutter is an individual, usually a teenager, who routinely harms himself or herself by cutting their skin. Wikipedia (a trusted source at this time of day) says people cut themselves “as a coping mechanism which provides temporary relief of intense feelings such as anxiety, depression, stress, emotional numbness or a sense of failure or self-loathing and other mental traits including low self-esteem or perfectionism. Self-harm is often associated with a history of trauma and abuse, including emotional and sexual abuse.”

I was hoping beyond hope that I wouldn’t be assigned to work with him. I was told I’d recognize him easily by his swastika tattoos.

Surprise! Guess who is seated at the table I’m sharing with my buddy Doug G and a new teamer named Nikki?

At first, he just grunted. I won’t call him by his first name, so I’ll call him Jason. (Jason happens to be the name of the manager of the hotel where I’m staying, according to the Guest Directory – but this young man could easily be a Jason). So I’m trying to make small talk and I ask Jason where he’s from. “All over,” he grunts. Okaaaaayyy….this is going to go just great!

I guess you should expect a challenge when the kid sitting across from you has any number of anarchy tattoos, at least 80, maybe more, cutting scars across each arm running from his wrists to his elbows, and the words “EVIL LAND” tattooed across each knuckle when he makes a fist.

As the day progressed, Jason didn’t say much more until my friend Reese spoke of his struggles growing up. Something touched a nerve in Jason and all of the sudden, he was a new young man. We talked about his hometown and when he moved to Virginia eight years ago. We talked about his 19-month-old son who got all his looks from Jason, according to him. He said he wanted to go on the Epiphany weekend to become a better father. I think just the fact that he wants to be a better daddy is a pretty important first step.

It’s awesome and humbling when you get to see the Holy Spirit so dramatically at work. It’s also more than a bit scary. Because it’s so far out of my control.

I honestly like all of my six young guys. They’re all intelligent, thoughtful and polite and I’m enjoying spending time with each. One young man, T, is witty and sharp. At one point, I asked what God looks like when he shows up. He answered, “To me, God is an undescribable person who comes in all shapes and sizes, sounds and more. God is the blessing you received when you’re sick or down and someone, out of nowhere, sends you support and love. God is every blessing you’ve received unknowingly.”

Later, I asked, “Have you ever felt God’s presence during the low times in your life?”

“Yeah, right now,” said one of the others named P.

Wow. First day.

Cool sidenote: supporters of Epiphany Ministry will buy meals and Bibles for the young men – called Stars. Each Star gets a ticket which says who provided that meal for them. Once in a while, the persons providing the meals and the people receiving the meals are both people we know. It happened a couple of times today. So for Jenna and James R. and Dave and Laura S., three of my kids received meals you provided for them through your donations. When we told C. and M and H about you all and your families and that you bought them their Quarter Pounders with cheese (multiple sandwiches in some cases), all three were extraordinarily humbled and all asked us to pass along their thanks to you. “I don’t think anyone besides my mother ever bought me dinner before.”