chasing the sun

nothing suprises me anymore...nothing shocks me or devastates me like I used to be able to be shocked or devastated.

Half an hour ago my good friend from Dallas called me with an update about a family I know. They're poor, dirt poor, and they live in a small home on the south side of downtown Dallas - its the ghetto, literally. Amazingly, all 4 children have the same mother and father, a rarity in their culture, AND the mother and father are still married...at least...they were.

A week ago, apparently the victim of a drug overdose, the mother passed away. They found her naked and dead in the bathroom. Both parents are mildly retarded and addicted to drugs and alcohol. I don't know how they managed to find each other in this crazy world and fall in love and get married and have 4 kids, but they did it. And now the children are being looked after by their grandparents, who are only slightly less unfit.

The father is a danger to his children even more so now than he was before. He's still drinking and getting high. My friend is worried because he also believes the father has been sexually abusing his two daughters. There's no money to pay for a funeral and a burial plot for this woman who, because of her size, will require a larger, more expensive casket.

I am sad and I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach because I can't be there to hold Anita and Shametra and Joseph and Darius and tell them I love them and I can't sit and talk with them and help them understand all that is going on in their young hearts and minds...

i'm so weary of this, all of this...

God, protect and defend the innocent - raise up your people to do justice and love mercy and hold the hands of the abused and neglected and oppressed, send warriors who will champion the causes near to Your heart

bring peace

amen