Naive or maybe just prideful

So tonight I'm feeling floored, naive, blessed. I've recently had the honor of hearing some of the people's stories that live in the neighborhood. Young people, some a lot younger than me, some just a little. The lives they are living, the choices they have to make every day are so different than mine. So much harder. To choose Christ or choose safety. To choose Christ or choose seemingly insurrmountable hardships. It's been easy for me to sit in my house with my lovely family and feel that I have something to offer them. Something to teach them. A place to judge them from. No more. I feel so inadequate. So unequipped. So sad and pained for them.

Then they tell me how much talking to one of us has helped, how being around us has made them make different choices, how they want to be a new creation. I have to admit this once filled me with pride. Made me feel good. Made me feel righteous. Tonight I know this is only true because of one thing. That all I have to offer them is one person. That is Christ. No more no less. I have nothing. I have NO right to speak into their lives, to judge them, to guide them. But Christ does and can. He has been where they are. He has made those terrifying, difficult choices. He has promised to never forsake them. I have nothing to offer, but Christ and Him crucified. I am here to shine His light, not my own. I know, duh, but really I am just now realizing how much of it has been about me. I'm so thankful to be His light in this dark place. Please pray with me for these people. That God will show His hand mightily in their darkest corners, in their hardest choices, in their most difficult places.