It's What We Do

By all accounts it was an accident.

Teenagers were using jet skis and inner tubes having a good time in the early evening Friday night on a local lake. After that the story gets jumbled in the details.

A teenager died.

Teenagers responded the way they usually do, with one of those impromptu memorials involving teddy bears and candles and lots of hugging and lots of crying. I got phone calls saying that the school was trying to get youth pastors to be around if needed. One of the local schools "gets" youth pastors and even lets us visit the lunchroom if we want. It's in their policy manual.

I was told not to feel obligated. I don't think I did.

So, I showed up.

There were candles.
There were teddy bears.
There were homemade posters with pictures.
There was lots of hugging.
There was lots of crying.

The process of grief was beginning. My "job" was pretty much to be there if needed.

A local church opened their doors for afterward...a truly meaningful gesture because it's within walking distance and it was 99 degrees at 9PM. Shouts out to Treitsch United Methodist for doing so, even with Sunday services 11 hours away and the janitorial service work completed (other church staffers know just what opening the doors would mean, i.e., the youth pastor will now clean the auditorium for the AM service).

The process of grief continued. My "job" was pretty much to be there if needed.

I was needed.
I'm glad I went.
And I'm glad to work with other youth pastors who were needed and were glad they went, too. It's what we're built to do.

I imagine I'll be needed even more in the weeks to come.
I'm glad I can be there, too.
And I'm glad to work with other youth pastors who will be there, too. It's what we're built to do.

It was one kid. I didn't know her. She wasn't in my ministry.
And her life and death affected a whole bunch of other kids. But some of my students knew her. And they are in my ministry.

And they have questions my correct theology won't comfort. Suffice to say that my job last night was just to say "I'm sorry" a lot and hug a lot and listen a lot.

I'm not sure that it's obligation that took me there, though.
I'm not sure I had a choice...I mean, I'm drawn to the teenage tribe.
There was a need.
It's what I do. It's what my colleagues do.

So, I went. So, they went.

Even if we can't, in that moment, answer very many "why" questions regarding a 15-year-old and boating accidents where the details are fuzzy to us.

But I can tell you that my colleagues and I would all say we'd rather have done something else with our Saturday nights.

But I suspect we wouldn't really mean it.

It's what we were built to do.