I was wrong.

I can admit that now.

I was wrong to assume that it would be anything but infinitely complicated to serve youth in the hood.

In our heads it’s simple:

Love. Serve. Lead.

The good news of liberation.

Jesus and justice too.

But reality is never that clean.

1/ And the reality is that sometimes the very things we want to address exist for a reason.

The reality is that sometimes our desire to serve doesn’t account for the demands of survival.

The reality is, sometimes people need the very armor we want them to discard.

2/