How Do I Hope?

I had a conversation with a gentlemen the other day that told me a story about a young man, about 14 years of age.  This young man lived in a poverty stricken area, that was saturated with gun violence, drug addicts, and pushers.  This young man asked some simple questions,

“How do I get out?”

They tell him that education is the key.  But how does he receive a proper education in run down schools and overcrowded classrooms? How does he go to college with a 6^th grade reading level?

“How do I survive?”

He knows he’s not supposed to sell drugs, but what is a young man to do when his mother has given her bridge card to the dope man so there is no food in the house?  How does he eat?

“How do I live?”

How does he get a job and keep one when he has never in his life been taught discipline?  How does he develop a good work ethic when no one around him works?  When there is no after school sports programs with coaches that can mentor him?

“How do I dream?”

When everyone that made something of themselves left the neighborhood and doesn’t look back.  How does he believe that he can become a doctor, engineer, business owner, lawyer, when there are none around him?  When none come to his neighborhood, his school?  How can he be better when he has never seen better?

“How can I have faith?”

How can he believe in God when the man that is teaching about Him is just as crooked as the dope dealer on the street?  When “saints” point their finger in judgment but won’t lift that same finger to help him?

“How can I love?”

How can he love a woman properly when he has never seen a man cherish his mother?  How can he love his own kids when his father was never around to love him?

So what is this young man to do?  A young man that is stuck in the pit, and sinking into the mire? 

Who helps him out?

Who will teach him to survive?  To live?

Who shows him how to dream?

Who teaches him to have faith?

Who shows him love?

Will it be you? 

Will it be me?