* “Son”

I don’t like Elder Conrad.

At the shelter, they compel us to attend chapel every night. A different group presents each night, following a monthly rotation. Elder Conrad and his group come the second Sunday of each month. In nigh on four years, he’s never said a single thing I felt merited attention.

There is one exception.

He tells the story of an incident where this young drug dealer had set up shop on his front steps, and he was seeking to get the guy to move.

He said, “Look, son …”

“What’d you call me?” the young man snapped.

“I said, ‘Son.'”

The young man said, “No one ever called me ‘Son,'” and burst into tears.

Conrad concludes, “There’s a lot of pain underneath the ways these young men act.”

Today we contemplate the world’s single most important Son.

May we think of every other son also.

Reblogged 2020-09-17.