The Gap

I'm not talking about khaki pants with pleats and button down dress shirts or front teeth, braces, and your 7th grade class picture.

I want to know who is standing in the gap for the lost?

While at work yesterday, I sat down on the pavement to enjoy Rice Krispy Treats and chocolate milk with four first grade boys during snack time, when normally I enjoy eating with the kindergarten girls because they are my favorites. (You know in elementary school when one kid gets deemed the teacher’s pet, and the teacher insists she has no favorites…well she lied. I have favorites, and they’re the kindergarten girls at Kids Klub).

Anyway, these four boys in particular tend to be the ones constantly getting sent to “the wall” for their five minutes time out for hitting, not doing what they’re told, talking in line, etc. but despite all this, I still love them. So we’re just sitting there enjoying the beautiful weather, and I ask them what their favorite movie is. What was I thinking? In less than five minutes, they’re talking about inappropriate things they’ve seen in movies.

FIVE MINUTES!

What just happened? When did six year olds start watching movies where their parents have to tell them to cover their eyes during certain parts? Yup, one boy was laughing as he told the other boys how he always leaves a big hole in between his fingers when his mom tells him to cover his eyes. HELLO!!!

Is it not a RED FLAG that your child shouldn’t be watching something if you have to tell them that?

I sat there not so much stunned but burdened. Burdened for these boys and for the rest of the seventy kids I have come to love so dearly in the past year. I prayed for these boys in particular that they would become great men of God. That He would get a hold of their lives and use them. Then I began to wonder….

But how?

Their parents aren’t believers. They’re not going to church. No one is telling them about Jesus.

How will they know the truth then? Will I see them in heaven? What are the odds that these boys will come to know the Lord before they die? All seventy kids? Does it sound harsh to think like that? NO! If I don’t think about it and PRAY for them, then who will?

“You!” This was my friend’s response tonight as I was talking about this situation. It was a good and necessary reminder that I have a responsibility to the lost.

Does this feel overwhelming? Yes. Is this why God sends us into different ministries and into different people’s lives? Yes. Are you praying for and seeking the lost around you? Yes? Maybe? No….?

I have in no way stepped up to the plate and prayed for them like I should, but I’ve started to see change in my life. The last couple of months God has been slowly transforming my thoughts into an eternal perspective. I’m still learning. He’s still teaching.

Ezekiel 22:29-31

29 The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.

30 "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.

31 So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.”