Let's Build Bridges

The stories I was hearing and the things I was seeing ripped blinders from my eyes that I didn’t even know were there. These things were happening right in our community, right under our noses . . . yet we were oblivious. While we were busy with potlucks and ladies’ luncheons, children were going without any meals at all. While we bickered over the color of the paint and carpet in the sanctuary, they lived in homes with no heat and frozen water. While we nursed wounded egos from something someone said, they wore long-sleeved shirts in the summer to hide the bruises from their mother’s latest boyfriend. Little girls dressed as boys so that maybe that boyfriend would only hit her . . . little boys discovered being a boy didn’t seem to stop them. Right under our noses. Oblivious. It was as though two worlds existed, and seldom did we venture, one to the other. Even though scripture not only implores but commands us to take the light into the darkness, I’m afraid we have found it far more comfortable to retreat to our homes and churches . . . and put up walls.

Those Kids

And so, as we worked to develop a horse ministry at the Christian camp where I was working part-time, I was resolved that it would not just serve the privileged and the already churched that it had so loyally served. With zeal, I went on to describe the ministry I envisioned. Could this camp become a place where those worlds began to merge? A bridge from one side to the other, where we could meet one another, learn from one another. Brené Brown has said, “People are hard to hate close up.  Move in.” So, what if we no longer held the camp for those kids on a separate week? What if we invited all to come, and we got to know one another?

The members of the special committee that had been formed to help develop this horse ministry were largely quiet after my emotional appeal. And then one of the board members voiced what was probably on most of their minds: “My grandchildren attend camp every summer. I’m not sure we want those kids to come.” In all fairness, there were real, practical issues that may need to be addressed: additional mentoring, monitoring, counseling. Some behaviors may be introduced that would warrant new practices and policies. But what hurt my heart was that those walls that we have placed around our churches, our Christian camps—even (maybe especially) our homes—once again threatened to keep “them” out. These walls that were meant to protect us might do so in a worldly, physical sense, but the spiritual damage from being disobedient to God’s call—to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, to seek after the least and the lost, to care for the widow and the orphan—would be far more costly.

Kids Like That

I’m sure it was no coincidence that, not long after that meeting, I found myself visiting with a friend who has given herself entirely to the children in the foster care system. She has run camps and programs to serve foster children and has committed to informing and educating as many people as possible about their plight. She has five biological children and has adopted something like eight children out of foster care. But when she talks about "her" children, it’s not just those in her home. She considers every child who comes to camp, every child who attends a program, every hurting child placed in her path as “her” child. So, when I gave my impassioned plea for an “integrated” camp to her, her response was quite surprising. “I’m not sure I want my kids to go to a camp like that. They suffer at the hands of kids like that enough every day at school.” 

In response to the unasked question etched on my face, she went on to explain. They would endure taunts for being smelly—their peers were completely unaware they had been sleeping in their car with no chance at a shower in days. Kids would make fun of their clothes—not realizing they didn’t have a washer, dryer, or even a car to get to the laundromat. Kids would take offense at their language—failing to understand that those words were tossed around in those kids’ homes in such a commonplace manner that they didn’t even consider them swear words. Kids would call them “stupid” because they struggled in their studies—never considering that maybe they couldn’t focus because they hadn’t eaten yet, or they were worried that CPS might come for them, or they were scared that their dad would come home drunk again—or if their dad would even come home.

High Walls and Burned Bridges

And so, it would seem there was resistance from both sides. The pain caused to one by the other was part of what kept burning the bridges that we try to build across the divide. And yet, as Christians, we are not called to build walls or burn bridges. We are called to share the good news! If we are honest with ourselves, how many people have come to Jesus because of the truth we have personally shared? How many have seen Christ because of how we have loved (including those who may be hard to love)? In what ways are we taking the light into the darkness? Isaiah 30 warns that if we disregard what God has called us to do, seeking to hear “pleasant things” and “illusions,” those walls will collapse and bring utter destruction. Perhaps that is what we are seeing play out in our culture today.

A Bridge to Hope

But the beauty of our gracious God is that if we cry for help and wait upon him, he will bring provision, blessing, and healing. Let us humble ourselves and turn back to the Lord. Let us tear down the walls we have built and let’s build bridges!

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;

I will remove from you your heart of stone

and give you a heart of flesh.”

Ezekiel 36:26 NIV

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you

did for one of the least of these brothers

and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” 

Matthew 25:40 NIV

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:

to look after orphans and widows in their distress

and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

James 1:27 NIV

“…this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked

and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.”

Isaiah 30:13 NIV

“…if my people, who are called by my name,

will humble themselves and pray

and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,

then I will hear from heaven, and I will

forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV