Broken Lies

Any veteran police officer will tell you that broken glass is the last sign of a broken neighborhood – not the first. The theory goes that if the glass sits long enough for us to notice, that’s a clear sign that no one is around anymore who cares enough to clean it up.

And if no one cares about the broken glass, there’s probably no one left to care about the decaying homes, infested infrastructure, and boarded-up businesses, much less the women and children.

Yet that’s exactly what’s happening to our inner cities. Surburban sprawl combined with any number of misguided government social policies are killing our cities.

The question becomes, should we care. And the answer is yes.

Yes, because we still live in a great nation: undivided by wealth. Yes, because we supposedly won the fight against segregation.

Yes, because there are still people left in those cities. Real live people who Jesus says are our neighbors. Women who have no one to protect them. Children who have no one to feed and clothe them. Men who have no home, no dignity, no purpose. All, the least among us. All, those we are to love – as if we were doing it for Him.

Please don’t let Jesus go hungry, naked, homeless or oppressed in the city because you don’t like to drive there. Or visit there. Or go there at all – not even in your mind.