Ode to Petra

This song became my anthem back in junior high, when it first came out and was playing on the radio.  My family started taking in foster kids when I was about ten. Every one of those children had a heart-wrenching story and needed an abundant supply of love, patience and understanding to handle their terror, anger, confusion and pain. The first year we had over twenty hurting children come in and out of our lives.  We slowed down the pace after that, but the difficulty in loving and letting go that often is the reason this song became so important to me.

Now I need this song again.  Every day I walk past, step over (and sometimes on), bump into, live in this city with people just struggling to survive.  They are all ages and have withered legs, elephantiasis, enormous tumors, leprosy, TB, AIDS, no parents.  And they all seem to have their hands out to me.  It doesn’t matter that I know I can’t be personally responsible for them all, nor do I have any desire to be the Great White Hope.  But what I don’t want to happen is, in my frustration at not being able to do enough, is to do nothing and get angry.  I have to steal myself to some degree, or I won’t get two steps out my door.  But how do I keep myself from going too far and becoming totally immune to the suffering around me?  I’m going to start by listening to the wise words of Petra.