Mother of a Chechen Boy

Numbers 14:18 - The LORD [is] longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation].





I am a mother to a Chechen boy. When the announcement came early Friday morning that the two suspected Boston Terrorists were Chechen, I wept. But I wasn't at all surprised. In fact, it all made sense in a heart-breaking, tragic way.

I've lived with the "genetic stubbornness of a Chechen child." I've breathed in his rebellious spirit that was formed by generations of violence and resistance.

Could we have been so naive to think that so many atrocities, although conducted 1,000's of miles away, would never reach us, would never touch our lives?

I've been listening to ChucK Swindoll's series on Biblical Parenting. In one segment, he touches on this idea of "sins of the fathers." He describes how patters of behavior, if not broken, reoccur down into third and fourth generations.

This week, a conflict that has gone on for hundreds of years "spilled down" to hundreds of innocents.

Except for the fact that my son is only 13, I suspected that either one of the bombers could have been him (he doesn't have any siblings because the Russians killed all the men in his family save for one uncle).

Images of wolves will haunt me...I see the rabid confusion of the injured animal (the wolf is the symbol of the Chechen resistance), their collective barks and cries in the night, and the mother wolf protecting her cubs.

A girlfriend sent a one-word text Friday morning. It said, "CHECHEN."

Chechen.

"No More Hurting People" Enough said.

Matthew 18:6
The Message (MSG)

6-7 “But if you give them a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck. Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard times are inevitable, but you don’t have to make it worse—and it’s doomsday to you if you do.

Weep With Those Who Weep

Today's commentary by Luis Palau, in his "Reaching Your World" radio address, likened the act of Jesus washing his disciples' feet at the last supper to helping someone who is hurting.

We are called to stoop down and do things that might be uncomfortable. Mediate. Get our hands dirty. Ask hard questions. Talk about difficult subjects. Make phone calls. Intervene. (I'm glad to see evangelicals speaking up for immigrantation reform, another reason the topic of action is on my mind).

"Simplify. Identify. Rectify." (Kid Rock)

Listening to the needs of others AND acting upon those needs as an act of service is Biblical.

Turning away from a situation because it is awkward, risky, or uncomfortable is...human nature.

Yet another shooting at a community college makes me wonder, did that student-shooter ever reach out to his friends, family, or teachers? Did the people he reached out to favor their own personal comfort over action? Teachers like me sometimes struggle with when and when not to rush to a student's aid.

Romans 12:15...weep with those who weep.

The Bible doesn't ask us to simply "be happy" or to "be peaceful." Instead, we are called to action, like the first responders who ran toward the tragic scene at the finish line of today's Boston Marathon. Instead of running away, looking toward something more beautiful, or "choosing to be happy," they immediately put on a servant's spirit, bent down, and went to work treating wounds and adding calm to chaos.

Who do I know that is hurting?

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Lashing Out

This is the week in the semester when students who have not regularly attended forfeit their final financial aid check.

The financial aid office contacted me and asked me to verify attendance for three students. I went through my records to be certain that what I was reporting was accurate information.

Sure enough, I heard from all three individuals after they traveled to the Business Office and found that there was no financial aid check waiting.


One was VERY angry with me. She said that I was to blame because I hadn't answered her email in a timely manner. She originally wrote to me on 3/25. I answered on 3/26. I pointed this out. Yet, she kept repeating "but you didn't answer me."

Galatians 4:16
“Have I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” ~KJV Ad.


Another student was actually quite apologetic. He shared that he had been incarcerated over the last two months and he sent me the link to the newspaper article that told the story of his crime. Oh dear! Too much information! I didn't read the story.

The same day a student in Texas lashed out at his fellow students, stabbing and seriously wounding several people at his community college.

It made me wonder why some people choose to lash out, instead of taking personal responsbility for their choices. Similarly, I wondered how we can help our children and our students to learn to forumlate paths out of seemingly "desperate" situations.

Leviticus 19:17-18 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” (ESV)

Boundaries

This week the children were on vacation from school for the week. Because I just started a new job, I was unable to take any time off. Mr. WestBerryWorkingDad did take a day of vacation for Good Friday and the whole gang went out to a movie.

It has been difficult knowing that the four are home "alone." I'm grateful that they've attended to the list of chores I leave them daily: dishes, pick up sticks, fold laundry.

They've watched movies and played video games more than I'd like to admit. There was an Adam Sandler marathon during which the youngest, J, picked up some rather inappropriate lines from the movie, "Click." I came home to hear "hoochie house...hoochie house...hoochie house." G-R-O-A-N.

He has stored up several of these phrases to use, but, because he is young, he often uses them in situations that are slightly out of context. For example, we took the children to our favorite European Restaurant for pastries. We explained to them that we used to go there when we were dating, over twenty years ago and J yelled out, "Awkward!!!!"

Movie ratings provide boundaries.

This situation and other events this week made me think about boundaries, personal and physical.

The dog has been jumping over his fence. His very tall, electrified fence. This is a problem.

I now work in a building enclosed by a tall fence, patrolled by security guards. I spend time in "the vault," a room with video surveilance, a glass bullet-proof window, and multiple security codes on the door.

I enjoy saying hello to the guards every morning and evening.

On the international boundary side of things, my best friend Yuko, who lives in Tokyo, is very concerned bout the propect of having Caroline Kennedy assigned as Ambassador to Japan. Because, she notes, the country expects more earthquakes.

There's definitely something comforting about boundaries.