The Dark Side of Urban Ministry

People with ADD tend to be very empathetic, which, 98% of the time, works to my advantage. The other 2% of the time, however, it makes me an emotional wreck.

Over the holidays my friend Renee and I hit the road (more details about this in the January newsletter, sign up here to get yours!) and were gone about 4 days longer than planned due to some unfortunate fuel pump issues.

The first time I ate lunch at the soup kitchen, I was almost overwhelmed with the darkness, the bleakness, the lack of hope. Over time, I came to almost not notice it anymore. That changed last week. While I was out of town, a person I knew in passing (who was quasi-homeless) was arrested for sexually assaulting a 4 year old girl. He is in jail now, awaiting trial. It has since came out that he had a long list of priors for just this sort of crime. I never saw it coming, but more importantly, a lot of folks who know him much better than I do are also surprised.

It is exactly because of this sort of evil that I find no problem believing in a very real, very alive Devil, or dark force in the universe. Sometimes, it is easier to believe in the darkness than in the light.