You Need to Know Something

To those of you in the Chicago streets that believe there's no alternative for you to live out, I am here to tell you--without a doubt--you've been lied to.  Whoever told you that the life of violence is the one you're here to live out is an absolute liar, and you've been terribly (and tragically) fooled.  It's a tragedy in that your true abilities and talents have been wasted so far.  You're living a completely different life than what you were made to live.  God made you to walk with Him.  God gave you talents, abilities, and a unique personality that brings all of your attributes together to form only one of you.  Your parents--however they came together--resulted in the creation of you.  You're not a mistake or a regret because God doesn't make mistakes and He certainly doesn't lose track of what He's doing, so He has no regrets.  He perfectly created you, and He created you with the relationship He offers you as the first priority....

When you can't reach into the heart of someone and shake them awake, it's beyond painful.  When you can't just speak truth to someone and make them see it for themselves, it's such an empty feeling.  It's hard to keep hope alive and hold onto it until they eventually see it.  It's hard to think that anything will ever change for people you'd do anything to save.  People you don't even know--but the simple fact that the actions in their city shows that human life has lost its place as the most valuable thing in our world, and everything in you wants them to see it for what it has become. This is where I stand: I am on the outside looking in on the City of Chicago by way of reading story after story about the lives of the kids in those streets coming to a violently abrupt end.  These kids who leave behind the hearts of their parents and siblings in complete brokenness and never ending pain over the loss of their child, or brother or...