a hopeless existence

I currently live in Memphis, Tennessee, which is normally in or near the top five most violent cities in America.  I live in a fairly nice neighborhood and on a street that is well-traveled, so there is not a large amount of burglaries or violent crimes.  There are a few crime-plagued neighborhoods to the west and south of us that I would rather not drive through at night.

It is a pretty common joke around Memphis that there is never anything good on the news, other than maybe Dave Brown keeping an eye on the weather or Andy Wise being on our side.  The news is filled with stories of murders or other ways that people are being harmed by family or strangers.  Even though it is often a joke, it is really not a laughing matter.

A couple of months ago I was with some people from my school and we were working with a church that is located a little southeast of Beale Street.  The church we were working with was in a poor and violent neighborhood.  The church is currently making visits in a different neighborhood to minister to people.  The church desires to start a new church in that neighborhood to help the people.  This neighborhood is not just one of the worst in Memphis, but it is supposed to be one of the most violent in the country. 

As we parked our church van in the neighborhood, the pastor pointed out a particular group of gang members standing on the street corner and told us not to talk with them right now.  He also told us that it is common for people in the neighborhood to think that you are a cop just for being white and walking up to talk with them.  We made some visits in this neighborhood at a particular apartment complex.  I talked with a couple of different people that seemed to be Christians and were interested in a new church coming to the neighborhood.  I didn’t realize it until we were in the van leaving for the day, but a few of my friends had been talking to a group of ladies sitting outside their apartment which had been shot up in a drive-by-shooting earlier that morning.  Somehow no one was injured. 

As we were driving back to the church, the pastor and some of our group discussed the drive-by-shooting and other violence in the neighborhood.  The pastor had grown up near the neighborhood and had been a crack addict before he was ministered to by the church and had a life-changing experience with Christ.  The pastor spoke about how sad it was to see people shoot one another for being members of a rival gang, or for being disrespectful in some way, or for no reason at all.  He went on to say that people in the neighborhood have no respect for human life; it is easy to pull out a gun and shoot someone because life has no meaning or value. 

I don’t want to attempt to discuss poverty and other causes of violence at length here--I may save that for another post--but this type of violence, this bleak outlook on life, is depressing.  What would cause a teenage boy or man to drive by an apartment full of women and children and shoot blindly?  How much injustice and evil must a person experience to have no shame in shooting a person in the middle of a street?  What can be done to give people hope and a reason to live as they are surrounded by a culture run by gang violence? 

I believe the churches can make a difference, just like the church helped Pastor Ronnie to see the pain and emptiness of his life as he lived without Jesus.  The changes that the neighborhood needs will take a while and are more than just one pastor and church can handle. 

Today, I heard of a friend who's husband just committed suicide.  These same feelings of depression, of seeing no worth or value in life, of seeing no hope for the future -- these feelings are the playmates of many children growing up in poor and violent neighborhoods.  How can we help?

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. 
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 
not looking to your own interests but each 
of you to the interests of the others.

Philippians 2:3-4 // NIV