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A Voice In Ramah

Category: youth

  • Remember Me!

    avoiceinramah

    What in the world would we do if God decided that the path for our entire lives would be determined solely by the stupid, wrong, hurtful and immature things we did before we were 16 years old?

    Think about all the things you did – and you didn’t get caught! Well, you think you didn’t!

    The psalmist says, “Don’t remember the sins and transgressions of my youth — remember me…”

    God knows us. And, God knows that we are all more than the worst thing we have ever done.

    The Psalmist says, “Don’t just remember what I’ve done, remember me!!”

    Take some time to see the young people in your life for who they are – young people, children….youths. Enough already about how foolish they can be. In fact, I have it on good authority that you (whoever you are now) were once foolish, too.

    Here are some concepts you should make it your business to learn more about:

    1. Restorative Justice
    2. Peace Circles
    3. Positive Behavior supports

    There is a whole lot we can do to steer young people toward good. And the truth is – we all have to be intentionally “steered” toward good. We are all human, wrong, broken, sinful, stubborn and in need of mercy and grace. And yet, God sees beyond all of that and remembers who we are – God’s children.

    We will never outgrow the need for God’s protection — and so it’s a good thing that God still reaches out the hand of mercy and forgiveness and provides us a place of “refuge.”

    ********

    Psalm 25

    1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
    2 O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.
    3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
    4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
    5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
    6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
    7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O LORD!

    8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
    9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
    10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

    11 For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
    12 Who are they that fear the LORD? He will teach them the way that they should choose.
    13 They will abide in prosperity, and their children shall possess the land.
    14 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them.
    15 My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
    16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
    17 Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of my distress.
    18 Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
    19 Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.
    20 O guard my life, and deliver me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
    21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
    22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all its troubles.

    The Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson
    Brooklyn, NY

    Matthew 2:18:
    A Voice In Ramah
    http://avoiceinramah.blogspot.com

  • Keep On Singing

    avoiceinramah

    The world is full of bullies.

    Bullying is a form of violence — it happens when someone who has more power (physical, social, emotional, etc.) targets someone of perceived “lesser power.”

    I wish we could all respond to bullies as Andrew Johnston has responded to the children who have bullied him. Andrew is a 13 year old British boy who has been singing since he was 6. His peers don’t care for his style of singing, so Andrew says, “he’s been bullied all his life.” When asked how he deals with his bullies, Andrew says, “I keep on singing.”

    Perseverance is about pressing on in the face of adversity.

    Young people can press on when surrounded by adults who are not too busy, and not too self-absorbed to recognize when they just need to hear some applause.

    Cheer on your favorite team. Scream and holler for your favorite singer at that dream concert. But in the words of the staff of the Rochester Freedom School in Rochester, NY — turn up the volume on the applause 5,000% for our children.

    Let’s encourage our children to just keep on signing. They really can win this.

    God bless you, Andrew Johnston.


    The Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson
    Brooklyn, NY

    Matthew 2:18:
    A Voice In Ramah
    http://avoiceinramah.blogspot.com

  • Do You See This? Are You Listening?

    avoiceinramah

    (High school students march around the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago to denounce youth violence. Twenty-two Chicago Public Schools students have been killed since September, including 20 by gun violence. (Tribune photo by Tom Van Dyke / April 1, 2008)

    In the last few weeks, school children in Chicago held a rally to call attention to the fact that twenty (22) students have been killed in the past school year alone. They carried signs reading “Don’t shoot. I want to grow up.” Did you see that?

    This week, CNN published a story detailing how thousands of children in the United States are being sexually abused in juvenile detention and prisons. Children in the United States….did you hear that?

    Today, a child in your own neighborhood –within your own range of sight — will be hurting and afraid to tell someone. There will be no parents around. There will be no trusted adults standing in the gap between them and a major mistake. Will you turn your face away from that?

    Above the din of mindless cable television reporting on stuff that just does not matter and well beyond the noise of all the things that serve to distract us from really loving one another, seeing one another — beyond all of that there are these voices that we cannot ignore.

    Children cry out by gang-banging, getting suspended, running away, cursing out adults, stealing. They cry out by withdrawing. They cry out by hurting themselves.

    “Hurt people hurt people.”

    We all are crying out in so many ways. These cries are evident in the statistics that shout the pathologies that are killing our communities. We get so worked up about the statistics, but we are doing nothing more about them wringing our hands in despair, blaming each other, blaming children….and while we are doing all of that, yet another generation falls away from us.

    Adults are waging wars all across the world and children are the collateral damage. We are warring and children are dying in Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Mississippi, Florida, California, Bosnia, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Darfur, Palestine….and in our own neighborhoods. Even in our own families.

    We are so busy warring, fighting and focused on our own adult navels that we don’t hear these voices.

    I love the Dr. Seuss story, “Horton Hears a Who.” In this timeless and incredibly important little story, Horton teaches us that there are so many little souls who stand in danger every day because the big souls just don’t hear them, don’t see them, don’t recognize their person-hood. And as the big souls go on their merry way, living, sucking up life, warring with each other, the unseen and unheard suffer as collateral damage.

    Today, take a moment to really listen to what is going on in this world. Open your eyes.

    1. Tell the media that you don’t want anymore stories on mindless mess. No more stories about people’s sex lives. No more sensationalized accounts of adult obsessions. Demand to know what is going on in this world in the lives of children. The best way to judge a country is by how well it does by its children and its vulnerable populations. And no “the sky is falling reports” about how all young people are going to hell in a hand basket. They are not. Demand to know where young people are doing well. Demand to know the success stories.

    2. Visit your local elected officials and ask them — “how are the children doing?” If their eyes are focused on children, then they will have to be creative about finding real solutions for housing, community violence, jobs creation, education, health…they will have to deal with the real issues of our lives. Tell them that you will be watching what they do to reduce the number of guns on our streets. And then, really watch them. For those who continue to do nothing, who cannot build bridges so that people come together to problem-solve, who cannot seem to focus on why they were elected — kick them out the next “go-round.”

    3. Look around your church. Is it place of peace for children? Has your church learned how to advocate for funding for positive youth development programs in your community? Does your church speak out to support your local schools? Are young people welcomed? Is there a class offered on how to be a good parent?

    4. Make your voice and your face known at the local police precinct. Enough said.

    5. Talk to a young person. Really talk. Communication is a two way street, so when you have said what you want to say, close your mouth and listen. Listen to what children say and what they don’t say. And when they do share something with you, honor their courage and follow through on your word.

    6. Educate yourself about the wars that are being fought all around the world. Figure out what the commonalities are. Open your eyes and see for yourself — in every case, we are losing a whole generation of children. In some places they are strapping bombs to their bodies. In other places, they are stepping on bombs as they play. Yet, still in other places, bombs are hurled at them as they sleep at night. The Chicago experience tells us that American youth obviously need a police escort just to go to school because our culture, in the words of Marian Wright Edelman has “a romance with guns.” But, mothers the world over know deeply that a bullet doesn’t love anybody. A bullet is no respecter of persons.

    I don’t believe that adults just want to war and fight. Rather, I believe that adults just don’t know how to make peace anymore. We don’t know how to listen. Kurt Bestor wrote a most haunting song some years ago when he was in Yugoslavia. The Bosnians, Serbs and Croatians were killing each other, and beyond all of the violence Bestor searched the faces of children and saw terror. He saw children who just wanted to be children: to play across boundaries, to laugh…to grow up.

    Listen: children still just want to be children. They just want to play across boundaries, to laugh and to grow up — in Yugoslavia, Newark, Darfur, New York, Afghanistan, Iraq, Your town, Your Family.

    Is anybody searching their faces and listening but God?

    The Prayers of the Children
    by Kurt Bestor

    Can you hear the prayer of the children
     on bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room?
     Empty eyes with no more tears to cry
     turning heavenward toward the light.

    Cryin‘ Jesus help me
     to see the mornin‘ light of one more day,
     but if I should die before I wake,
     I pray my soul to take.

    Can you feel the hearts of the children
     aching for home, for something of their very own.
     Reaching hands with nothing to hold onto
     but hope for a better day, a better day.

    Cryin‘ Jesus help me
     to feel the love again in my own land,
     but if unknown roads lead away from home,
     give me loving arms, ‘way from harm.

    Can you hear the voice of the children
     softly pleading for silence in their shattered world?
     Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate,
     blood of the innocent on their hands.

    Cryin‘ Jesus help me
     to feel the sun again upon my face?
     For when darkness clears, I know you’re near,
     bringing peace again.

    Dali čǔje te sve dječje molitve?

    Can you hear the prayer of the children?

    The Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson
    Brooklyn, NY

    Matthew 2:18:
    A Voice In Ramah
    http://avoiceinramah.blogspot.com

  • But God…

    avoiceinramah

    But God knows the way I take
    When he has tried me
    I shall come forth as gold.
    Job 23

    For all the things we think we can predict, this much is true. We cannot predict what God will do with a child.

    Jesus was born of a young mother. From before his birth, questions swirled about regarding his parentage. Though Joseph married Mary, people still considered Jesus to be a bastard child, an illegitimate child. How can a human being be “illegitimate”? That’s another question for another day.

    But the point is — because of his parentage, the circumstances surrounding his birth, etc., not much was expected of Jesus. Yet, 2000 plus years later, people are still committing his words to heart. People are still inspired by his humility. People still believe…

    Just goes to show you what God can do with a child. Any child. Anybody anywhere.

    God does know the way we take. God knows the pitfalls, the difficulties, the joys, the sorrows. And, God knows how those circumstance serve to shape our personalities, character and potential.

    God does try us. Like a mother who places a ball just out of the reach of a toddler so that the toddler will step out and walk, God stretches us and calls us forth. Sometimes, we go forth through painful territory, but…

    You shall come forth as gold. Being gold does not mean being shiny and passing for “bling.” Being gold means being valuable. You are incredibly valuable. Your value is not determined by the standards of the world, but by the hope of God.

    For those of you who are walking with children, here’s a message to press into their hearts: muster up the strength to walk through adversity because your walk is not solitary; your walk is not in vain. With each difficult step forward you will learn to drop more of the world’s shiny, heavy, burdensome, useless bling and own the courage to accept the value you have in God’s eyes.

    Press that into their hearts by showing them how much they are valued.

    Fight for all children to live in healthy, violence free communities.
    Fight for all children to have comprehensive health and mental health coverage.
    Fight for all children to have good schools and quality after school programs.
    Fight for all children to have strong, loving and supportive families.

    Fight for the gold.

    Amen

    The Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson
    Brooklyn, NY

    Matthew 2:18:
    A Voice In Ramah
    http://avoiceinramah.blogspot.com

  • What are We Doing?

    avoiceinramah

    A few years ago, I recieved an invitation to preach for a women’s retreat. I love ministering to women. I love the church. And I appreciate any and every opportunity I get to gather with sisters and “get away.” But there was something about this invitation that just really turned my stomach.

    Maybe it was because the invitation came to me about 6 weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.

    Maybe it was because I just couldn’t get the pictures of those children, our children, so incredibly abandoned by the richest country in the world out of my head.

    Maybe it was because I knew that the very paper the invitation was printed on cost so much more than what many are willing to give to make a difference in our communities.

    I don’t know. That invitation sickened me like none other. And then it hit me: one of the things that structural evil depends on is for women of faith to be preparing for retreats, spa days, getaways and the like. While we are “retreating” our children are being incredibly abandoned. Our retreats don’t even have to be like the much criticized “mega-fest” conferences of which hopefully, many people are sick and tired and done with.

    We retreat in little ways every day.

    • Refusing to speak up when a child is being mistreated because “that’s not my child” and “I’m tired.”
    • Refusing to speak up when resources for after school programs, child care, pre-K are scare in our communities.
    • Refusing to speak up and hold our own community institutions accountable for quality and thoughtfulness, not just just cultural competence.
    • Refusing to step in when a young woman is obviously over-tired and overwhelmed and dangerously on the edge of abusing her child.

    We have retreated, gone off to focus on “our own.”

    Don’t get me wrong. I believe in the power of the retreat. Jesus retreated often. He took a day here, a morning there to get away from the press of the crowd. But his getting away was not about forgetting. He retreated to commune with God and came back with power for the people. When many of us come back from these retreats and conferences, we come back with empty wallets and purses, disembodied praise DVD’s — and no power to do anything that will make the difference for people who are still hungry for a word from God.

    So, I did something with that invitation to preach at that women’s retreat that I rarely do if I can help it: I declined. I did my own hair and nails and bought a new pair of pantyhose. And then I spent the weekend just being “present” with the children in my church — affirming those who needed encouragement, buying new toiletries to give to growing young women, providing an ear and a shoulder and transportation home for a grandmother who is raising her children’s children. I also started doing research about how the children and families in my church’s neighborhood experienced life in that neighborhood.

    You can’t change what you don’t know…and I want to know.

    Signed,

    A Voice in Ramah…not bought; not satisfied and not consoled until all of God’s children, Rachel’s children (Matthew 2:18), my children see abundant, God-filled life.

    The Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson
    Brooklyn, NY

    Matthew 2:18:
    A Voice In Ramah
    http://avoiceinramah.blogspot.com