the water slide

ok…..so let me set the stage for this story. it was the fall of 2002 and i was working at asbell elementary school in fayetteville for the boys & girls club. it’s was a program called skc (school kids connection) and i worked with 2 or 3 other college students every weekday afternoon from 2:30 until 6:00.  we had an average of 25 to 30 kids each day and met in the school lunch room. the first hour was dedicated to snack and home work time and then the kids could either go outside and play on the large playground or in the gym across the street. usually they wanted to play outside.

while most of our kids had the tendency to be quite rambunctious, two stood out above all the others. kurt and alex were more than just hyper, they were downright nuts. i’m sure in one days time myself, along with my coworkers miah and megan, said their names at least 50 times a piece. they practically lived in the time out corner. it’s hard to believe that 2 second graders could be so hard to handle, but trust me, they were. kurt was a little dark skinned boy who’s grin could make you forget that you were upset with him. alex was a frail little boy who wore hearing aids, but knew how to use them to his advantage. he would turn them off on purpose and then use his lack of hearing as an excuse for not obeying the teachers.

michael was one of my favorites. bless his little heart, everything that happened to him was hard. he spent a lot of time in my lap due to his inability to play with others. he, along with alex and kurt, was also in 2nd grade. he was a little chubby with dirty blonde hair and had little to no self confidence. unfortunately, his two best buddies were alex and kurt. they were constantly picking on him and getting him upset, but day after day he continued to befriend them. well, one particular fall afternoon, in little michael’s mind, kurt and alex went to far.

one of the favorite places to play on the playground was the large oak tree beside the sand box. it was near the property line and had a fence that ran along side of it. since there weren’t really any trees or other obstructions throughout the area, the 3 skc teachers (myself, miah, and megan) usually sat near the basketball court and watched all the kids as they ran and played. it wasn’t uncommon at all for michael to come running to me 2 or 3 times a day crying and complaining about something. on this day, it was far from a cry.

michael came running with a look of sheer horror on his face. i was sitting down and he nearly knocked me over when he ran into me. his little face was red from the crying he’d been doing. he could barely get out words because of his constant heavy panting. somehow i managed to understand that i needed to come with him over to the oak tree. when i got there, alex and kurt had this look on their faces that said, uh oh. here we go again. after michael finally stopped crying and whimpering, the story began to unfold. (remember, this was in late october). apparently, before we had even left the lunch room to go outside kurt and alex had told michael that they were going to build something and that he couldn’t be a part of it. well, when they got to the large oak tree they decided to build, a water slide. that’s right, with 40 degree temperatures and coats on, alex and kurt were going to build a water slide. what they managed to do was lean two old branches that had fallen from the oak tree up against the property line fence and call it a water slide. obviously any clear minded individual could distinguish two things here. 1. leaning two sticks against a fence does not constitute a water slide. there is no water nor slide, so, you can’t really call it a water slide. 2. it’s late october and the thought of being submerged in water outside is insane. but, these two thoughts don’t register with a 2nd grader who lacks self esteem and common sense. for nearly 5 minutes, i explained to michael that this was no water slide and that even if it was, we weren’t allowed to play on water slides at skc (i totally made that up). he wasn’t buying. finally, i made kurt and alex tear down the water slide and put them in time out. while michael was satisfied the water slide was torn down, he was still hurt by the fact that kurt and alex wouldn’t allow him to play.

as i think about this story, i realize how my life as a christian is a lot like michael’s story with the water slide. i see things that i know aren’t true (false hopes, etc) and yet i get upset when they don’t come true. i also get very upset when friends of mine turn their backs on me for no reason and seem to show no compassion or mercy. i need to realize that the lord has blessed me with an abundance of friends who i know i can turn to at anytime. i am so incredibly blessed.