Bridges for Youth

There once was a mom and dad who had a boy and a girl and a happy little family. This whole family thing was pretty picture perfect.   Dad worked hard and helped coach his sons baseball team.   Mom worked at a local daycare part-time and was involved in her daughters brownie troop.

Mom and Dad paid their bills on time, had just a small amount on a single credit card they owed, and were getting along pretty well.  It was then that something totally unexpected happened. Dad’s company closed down were he had worked for 8 years, and suddenly 700 former employees were crowding the unemployment office.  The scenario was worse because of an already existing rise in unemployment and Dad was taking any jobs that he could find to put food on the family table.

In just a few weeks the loss of Dad’s job started to show how susceptible the family was to the loss of their home.  The rent would be late that first month and then despite grasping every opportunity to earn for his family, there just was not enough to pay rent the second month.   It was just 8 weeks after losing his long time job that the phone was ringing again and again and the person on the other end was always the landlord or the credit card company who had not received a payment last month.

The happy little family began to show the wear and tear of their battle to return to normalcy.   It had been 10 weeks since the job loss, and now with the shortage of income and still no permanent full time work for dad, anger began to enter into the marriage.  The anger indeed came from the situation that life had dealt them, but it was a matter of fact that  mom and dad would vent their anger on each other.  Yes, mom and dad were determined not to let this get the better of them, but it seemed as though their happy little family and hope of peace in the storm was fading quickly.

Between 10 and 11 weeks of the job loss and just having sporadic work the family had plunged to a new low.   They had humbly went and applied for food stamp assistance and were grateful that at least the kids would not be hungry.  Yet the little bit that was coming in financially was barely enough to come up with last months rent and live in the house for a few more days, and then next months rent would be due.  As they worried and tried to maintain their composure over the late rent, the utility bill arrived in the mail.  Dad said, “Are you serious?”, how much more can we take.  Just then, the little ones got home from school and their boy reminded them his baseball fee was due and the daughter delightfully reminded them of her brownie troops trip this weekend that she needed some money for.   Mom and dad separated in the living room, mom going into the kitchen were you could hear her noisily putting up dishes and pans. Dad went outside to the garage acting as though he was doing something constructive on his tool bench.  The kids just stood in the living room, knowing somehow not to intrude on either the kitchen or garage.

How impossible the situations that life can bring us in such a short period of time?  All can be well one moment and then just a moment later there is a thunderous storm.  Families must find safe harbor from the storms of life, if they are to survive.   Hope certainly seems elusive in the center of the storm, in the center of the bills and situations, were there appears to be no deliverance.  The story of Jesus and his disciples on a boat illustrates what families feel like when the waves and storms of life come on us unexpectedly.   Jesus was on the boat with his  disciples, just like he is in the house with this family, in the middle of the storm. Satan, the deceiver, certainly wants families to focus on the storms of life, and not on Jesus.   Confidence and trusting in Jesus calms the storm, because just as he spoke and quieted the storm around that boat, he can calm and quiet the storm in anyones life.  Focus on Jesus and give your burdens over to him. I give this advice, because I know it to be true from the storms unexpectedly arisen in my own life.  Jesus said to the storm “Peace be still”,  Mark 4:39