In the back of the dining room we have a lounge area set up with couches and small tables for two. It's become the preserve of the teenagers. They fool around, jump up and down and generally behave like, you know, teens. Often they will pull the deuces together to make a table for eight and then sit twelve kids at it in a raucous, fun dinner for their crowd. Often they will leave a mess behind and, sometimes, an entire table of kids will walk away without cleaning up at all. That just ticks everybody off, so I do the best I can and remind them to be a little more considerate. Sometimes I'm even polite about it.

Friday, however was just beyond the pale. There were about thirty kids who just trashed the lounge area, throwing food on the floor. leaving their tables in a mess, tossing garbage behind the couch. It was stunning, and it was obviously planned. There were trays of food stashed under the couches, there was garbage everywhere.

I've been thinking through the whole lounge area for awhile. I've been wondering if it doesn't serve to isolate the teens from the rest of the community but, on the other hand, I feel that the kids may just need a place they feel is their own. But the organized assault of piles of food and napkins and garbage that was left behind on Friday felt like just that - an assault. We got dissed on Friday night - big time. They weren't just disrespectful, they were flaunting their disrespect. They were daring us, they were taunting us, they were slapping us in the face.  So how am I to respond to this?  What is Christ asking me to do in response to this 'slap in the face'?

And I hate the answer. I really hate the answer. I hate it because what he's asking me to do is turn the other cheek. What does that mean? It means I'm neither a victim or a doormat. It means that I will choose - I will choose - to respond with humility, love and grace. That choice means that I don't sacrifice my dignity, that I don't wound my pride. I will choose. Yes, I will choose to remember what an arrogant little jerk I was at that age. I will choose to remember how many advantages I had that these kids don't. I will choose the way of a servant.  And each act of grace and humility and sacrifice I choose will further illuminate the gulf between the way of Christ and the way of self, will expose the corruption of ego and pride, will light a candle of light and love against the darkness of our world.

I'm just not there yet.