Holy Ground

Posted on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 by Tacoma YFC

By Lindsey Roberts, YFC Leader since 2018

This past Monday, Kacee appeared before me as I was chatting with other students during lunch, and proceeded to just stand next to me.  Once the conversation wrapped up with the other students, I asked her how her weekend was, and she answered plainly, "I didn't do anything super fun....though I did drive all the way to Vancouver."  I casually asked her what she did all the way out there, and she began to open up. She traveled there for her aunt's funeral.

As we continued to talk, it was like she gave me a window into her life and her world.  I knew Kacee at Campus Life and school, but as she spoke, her world took form before me and stood in 3D, full of things I had no understanding of at that age.  Not only was she struggling to pass math class, her friends were fighting, she felt like she needed to end a few friendships, her parents were concerned about her being depressed, but her aunt had just overdosed/committed suicide in front of her two toddlers. On top of all that, even though she traveled all the way to Vancouver, her parents didn’t consider her mature enough to actually attend the funeral and so she had no idea how to process the grief of her aunt’s death.   

Who could’ve known a simple, “How was your weekend?” would offer such a window into her life?  

The bell rang, signaling an end to our conversation.  As I walked her to class, we talked about plans to write a goodbye letter to her aunt together after school sometime soon, and the potential of working on math homework together during lunch sometimes.  

I'm not sure what Jesus is doing in Kacee's life, but as I walked out of the school that afternoon, I was reminded of the passage in Luke 24 when Jesus appears post-resurrection to two men as they walk to the town of Emmaus.  God keeps them from recognizing who Jesus is until they are eating dinner with him. During dinner, God opens their eyes and they recognize Jesus for who he is. Immediately he disappears. They ask themselves, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”  

Their hearts burned because their souls knew they were in the presence of the Lord, in the same way that my heart burns in conversations such as this one with Kacee.  My heart burns because I am experiencing and interacting with Jesus through students just like Kacee, and in it I am reminded of the true joy it is to walk alongside students in relationship.  It’s overwhelming to think that my God is a God that sees fit to take a noisy, messy middle school cafeteria and transform it into Holy Ground where I get to experience more of his character through the students I am there to serve.

If you would like more information on how you can partner with Tacoma Area Youth For Christ to place more caring leaders into the lives of youth like Kacee all across Pierce County, visit MoreLeadersMoreImpact.com.