A Child shall lead them

I've been struck this week by the maturity, compassion, hope, and wisdom of a group of high schoolers who have gone through unimaginable tragedy, and yet have emerged to the other side of that as leaders who are inspiring more people for their movement than has happened in my memory. 

And yet, these same young people have been targeted by cruel words, innuendo, and political hate speech.

That's the way of prophets though. 

Prophets live in the wilderness always. They sit on the margins of the "inside" and lay bare the tragic flaws of those who sit comfortably there.

Prophets take the more difficult path through the wilderness when it would be so much better for them to go around it or hide from it.

A seventeen year old should be getting ready for college; filling out applications; planning prom and senior week.

But instead, these young people are calling out from the wilderness they've been thrust into to decry a system that has failed them.

They've had to face the glare of the media spotlight and rally the troops to make change that protects the rights - and the safety - of all, rather than keep the status quo that protects the rights of just some.

Who told them to be so bold?

Who guided them into this wilderness to turn them into leaders?

Into prophets?

It is easier to not speak up. There are so many things on any given day that I know I sit in silence about rather than shouting from the rooftops about the injustice of it all.

A groups of young people is showing me that the easy way won't get you out of the wilderness.

They are showing us all.

Isaiah 11:6

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
    and a little child shall lead them.