The limits of the gospel

I talked with her face-to-face a handful of times, not enough to really get to know her.

Through the latticework of interconnection that shapes a town, there were others in our congregation who did know her. They knew her far better than I did. But though I reached out to her a couple of times, my interactions were too fleeting, too far removed, abstracted through social media.

I'd sat with her in the social hour, listened to her as she spoke of her life. She'd come to a Bible study, once, and sat there trying to stay awake. You could feel her lostness, a muted frustration hanging about her like a cloud. She'd had a kid, then another kid, sweet little ones born into chaos. She'd struggled to find work, to find her place, to find a path up and out. That path just never surfaced.