It Is Finished.

"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins."
Isaiah 40:2

My experience working with teenagers has taught me this: No matter how hard you try, you never know all that a kid is going through.  I could tell you stories of teens we've worked with in ministry who lived in settings with circumstances that would absolutely blow your mind.  They endured much.  Everyday life was a struggle, yet these kids went to school with everyone else, sat in the cafeteria with everyone else, smiled for yearbook pictures like everyone else. 

My wife, Martha was one of those kids as a teenager.  Life was really hard around the time she tried out for her 8th grade basketball team.  She was a good athlete; she made the team and spent a lot of time on the court.  But, after a frustrating loss her coach lined everyone up on the court and started running them.  Back and forth they went for what seemed like hours, until finally, Martha had enough.  She sat down in the middle of the court.  Her coach was incensed, her eyes like lasers, her nostrils flaring.  She opened her mouth and breathed a fiery rebuke, but Martha just sat there.  She said, "I'm done." The standoff sent the coach fuming out of the gym.  Practice was over.  It was finished.

Teenagers need to know the soul-satisfying sound of these words Jesus spoke from the cross... "It is finished."  Isaiah's commission meant the end of a long exile, the long awaited conclusion to their pain and suffering.  What about our commission? Can we speak tenderly to a generation of teens and their families overwhelmed by struggle?  What do we have to say?