Miracle

I truly love my job.  Well, as with most other jobs I guess, I love it most of the time.  That being said, my job has me a bit disillusioned... particularly this week. 

Until I actually started working in the field as a social worker, I guess I thought that all human beings had a natural desire inside of them to grow, to change, and to become the best versions of themselves possible.  I thought that people who lacked this internal drive were the minority, the exception.  Now, I have realized that it is really the other way around.  Most of us are okay with maintaining an equilibrium; we are okay with, and we prefer,  the status quot.  We are okay with getting by, and not doing much more than just that. 

I left work today (Friday) totally brokenhearted.  And now, two hours later, I have moved past feeling brokenhearted to feeling absolutely, emotionally depleted.  Beyond brokenhearted... just exhausted. 

So much of America lives in poverty.  So many live lives that are so empty in every way,  and they do not even realize it.  There are children growing up in cycles of addiction, of poverty, of bad choices.  There are children growing up in houses that have meth labs where kitchens should be; palates on a hardwood floor to sleep on instead of beds; men coming in and out of their homes to have private visits with their moms.  Outside of the grace of God, they may never know that there is more; that there is true life that can be experienced.  But outside of a redeeming Savior drawing us to Himself, we are a hopeless people. 

It hurts me to see people living in the hopelessness, and not knowing any better than to accept that hopeless as an inevitable reality.  It hurts me to not be able to speak the love that is MY Savior over them (there are strict ethical guidelines regarding conversations surrounding faith). 

My God transforms.  He heals.  He saves.  I have no choice but to believe that He will somehow draw children of poverty to Him; that He can reach them where they are... no matter where that is.  That is my hope for them.  That is my hope for the people I met today.  That is my hope for each of my clients, no matter their age, no matter the poor choices they have made over the courses of their lifetimes.  That has to be my hope.  And my faith has to be in that hope, and in that Savior.  Otherwise, I cannot continue to do the job that I do. 

Picture from here

Now it's the weekend, Andrew is coming home tonight to be in a wedding tomorrow, and I will not let work, or thoughts about work, seep into my weekend!  :)