My New Life

This is what it looks like to drive up to work every morning! 
(Actually this is what it LOOKED like, now we come in from 3rd South instead of Center Street, just FYI)

This is my new life (read job).   My first ever social work internship and I LOVE IT!  I work with people who have committed crimes but were not deemed competent by the judge to stand trial.  We work with them to help them understand their case and the legal system so that they can go to trial and move on with their lives, whatever that means for them.
I love it, I wouldn't change it for anything.

I've noticed that this job is HARD!  Hard in all the best ways but still hard.  It's hard to work with people who sometimes don't want to be worked with.  It's hard to see them inside and basically locked up all the time, even though they may not have been tried for a crime.  It's hard to care about people more than the system dictating their lives seems to care about them.

Several times I've been struck by the reality that...this is their lives.  This place is it.  They have one life on earth and this is where they are spending it.  They are an oft overlooked and un-helped group, and I have to say, before I started working there, I didn't feel particularly drawn to this population either.  But somehow I feel an incredible amount of love for the people I work with.  I take no credit for it, I know it's grace that let's me love this way.

This song runs through my head every day when I'm at work


One person's reaction when I explained what I did was, "So you are helping murders either go free or get executed?"
I was speechless.  In a way I could see where she was coming from...kind of.  Here's a thought that one of my mentors at work shared with me that helped me make sense of it.
This is when Christ was speaking to the Nephites about how to treat people who came to church but weren't living the way God expected them to (3 Ne 18:30-32).

"Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out from among you, but ye shall minister unto him and shall pray for him...If he repent not he shall not be numbered among my people...nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out...for unto such shall ye continue to minster; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them."

Even though these people are removed from society (cast out) and possibly for good reason (some are dangerous), I don't mind being one of the people who continues to have hope for them.  I think I am in good company.

Another thing that is hard to deal with is feeling like what we're doing doesn't make a difference...and nothing we could do would make a difference.  This is another point often suggested by well-meaning onlookers.  But it does make a difference, because what we are trying to do is good.

The last words of a man who had worn out his whole life trying to tell others about God, but felt he wasn't very good at it:
"And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people.  And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good." (2 Ne. 33:4)

Because my simple efforts done in weakness are fundamentally good, I hope they will be made strong-- Magnified.  And even if that doesn't mean that I see people's lives change, it still matters because it is good.

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