I really hadn’t thought about it until she asked me. She’s a close friend and the sort of person who is both repulsed by cable news and can’t look away, the type this 24-hour cycle was created for. I was surprised to see her name pop up on my screen, but Chicago had been in the news a lot since the immigration agents came to town, so she was checking in. After the perfunctory and increasingly useless pleasantries were exchanged, she relayed the real reason for her call: “I’m curious: What’s it like pastoring in a city under siege?”
Now there’s a question with teeth. I sat back, giving her query the silence it deserved, inviting her to sit in it with me while I found some words.
I thought about earlier that day, and a story about a family we’re helping that, well, isn’t really a story because I’m not sure if I can tell it. I’m never quite sure what I can say, because it isn’t my experience to share and they aren’t ready to share it, so I say nothing.
