This morning as I was listening to "Walk On" one of my favorite U2 songs (and by 'favorite' I really mean 'top 20', for you can't simply narrow their greatest hits down to a few), I was immediately struck by emotion with how these words speak directly to the ladies I work for at Mission Waco. While the song was originally written for Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, it also accurately paints the picture of many of the ladies in our job training class. For while Suu Kyi has been under a strict house arrest for several years now, the ladies in our class often spend their entire lives in a sort of 'house arrest'.

Let's begin with a portion of "Walk On", shall we?

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Walk on...Walk on
What you got, they can't steal it
No they can't even feel it

Walk on...Walk on
Stay safe tonight

You're packing a suitcase for a place
None of us has been
A place that has to be believed
To be seen

You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom

Walk on...Walk on
What you got they can't deny it
Can't sell it or buy it

Walk on...Walk on
Stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
You can only take so much

Home...Hard to know what it is
If you never had one

Home...I can't say where it is
But I know I'm going

Home...That's where the hurt is

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
You can only take so much. Walk on

Leave it behind...You've got to leave it behind

The job training class I help with is usually 90% women, typically due to the fact that most of the students in the class have to meet certain criteria, such as being on government assistance for needy families. And to be on said assistance, one needs to be a custodial parent. So, in a low-income single parent family, your usual custodial parent is most likely going to be the mother.

As a young, white middle-class male who grew up very sheltered from realities such as this, I find myself overwhelmed quite often. Our students--young ladies barely into their 20's and already with 2,3,4, sometimes 5 children--experience constant, daily hardships. Nearly every morning, at least one will walk into the office with an emergency or tragedy or some sort of drama. Over the past week they've included:

a subpoena to court,
1 broken arm due to domestic violence,
5 sick children,
2 emergency requests to help pay for rent/bills
5 days missed of school due to illness or pregnancy complications

As I said, this is stuff that has happened within the last week to our small class of 10! So being overwhelmed at times is nothing out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, getting involved in the chaos and heartache that our students bring to class with them each day eventually leaves us feeling jaded and a bit depressed at times. My coworkers and I become very cynical of society, the government, churches, and every other institution that has failed them so far. At the same time, we become skeptical of our students' ability and even desire to find a way out of the holes they find themselves in.

So, when I was hit by the words of "Walk On" this morning, needless to say it brought welcome relief from the cynicism and skepticism. As Bono sang, And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off, and if your glass heart should crack, and for a second you turn back. Oh no, be strong, I thought of our dear women who feel as if they're constantly groping in the darkness, waiting for some semblance of light to appear on the horizon. These same women, who have been hardened and tried and tested so that they appear hard and bitter on the outside are still quite fragile, or "glass hearted", as Bono would say. Tears inevitably flow and it seems easy to give up, but they somehow find strength to continue on though the odds are against them.

And as the song continued,
Home...Hard to know what it is
If you never had one

Home...I can't say where it is
But I know I'm going

Home...That's where the hurt is

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
You can only take so much. Walk on

...my heart broke. For I've come to know a few of the children of our students. I've come to understand the painful past our students have had to endure--broken families, substance abuse, physical abuse, and depression. And as they try to create a home for their sons and daughters, they also have to find a way to cope, to recover. How can they know how to build a home if they've never had one? Or worse yet, how can they build a home if the only home they've known is one "where the hurt is"?

It's with this broken heart that I think that I finally began to identify with our ladies. Yes, I'll never experience even half of the mess they've had to endure. But as the tears welled up in my eyes this morning and I sang, I know it aches, and your heart it aches. You can only take so much, I felt a bit of the hope that can rise from desperate times. And as I pulled into the parking lot at work, greeted some of the students at the door, and opened the door to the class for them, I sensed their optimisim and determination to overcome all odds.