What is God like?  Can I really count on him to be there for me?… 

A teenager tells me he recently got mugged.  On his way home from school young men pushed him to the ground and held him down while they stole stuff out of his pockets.  An old lady came out of her apartment and shouted at the young men and they ran off.  Thankfully, the boy was okay. 

“I was so scared,” the boy says.  “What kind of God would let this happen?”

— 

A few days later he is walking in front of my apartment building when gangsters slow down in their car, from which they ask him the dreaded question, “Where are you from?”  (Translation: What gang do you represent?)  The boy is not a member of any gang but knows the answer nevertheless could result in a beating or execution, as it often has in Los Angeles (like here and here). 

“I’m not from nowhere!” he shakes his head.

“What are you smiling at?” 

“I’m not smiling!” 

They jump out of the car and rush up to him.  After instilling fear in the boy, they let him go.  His heart is pounding. 

As he’s walking away, one of the gangsters orders him to walk back to him.  Apprehensively, the kid approaches them. 

“Grow your hair back out.  Anyone in this hood with a shaved head is part of our gang.  If we catch you bald again, we’re going to jump you in.”  [Translation: We’ll force you to join our gang by the initiation ritual of beating you up.]  The kid is not bald. He has at least a half inch of hair on his head, but he is committed to growing it out even more now.

After relaying this story to me, the kid looks directly at me and asks, “Phil, where were you?  This all happened right outside your apartment building and I kept thinking, ‘Phil is going to come out any minute.’  Where were you?  I was so scared.”

Apparently, I was home at the time but didn’t hear any of this going on.  But if I had heard, what would I have done?

Like his first question about God, now the boy essentially is asking another question: ”What kind of church would let this happen?” Can he count on Jesus’ followers to be there for him?        

Please join me in praying for peace in our cities.  Pray that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.  Pray for all those around us who, with fearful and angry tears, are asking, What kind of God would let these things happen? 

And let’s get it in our heads that God is going to use you and me, who bear his image, to be part of his response.  As I read scripture, his Spirit is going to give us what we need to do things for which we could never be ready on our own.