Erratic charity

After Sunday morning worship I was driving down the street, my eyes almost blinded by the sun's brightness. In the distance, I saw silhouettes of three people standing on the corner outside of a mom and pop convenient store.

I drove nearer.

It was three of my boys.

I pulled over.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked

"What's up T.?"

"T, we broke," one of the boys said.

That was his way of saying, "The program’s over."

"T, you want to be the driver?" (Referring to a drive by shooting)

What he meant was, "We're back to what we were doing before."

Seeing them standing on the corner reminded me of a line I read in a book. "When facing systemic disadvantages such as these [poverty, inaccessible or poor health, inadequate education, and rampant crime], erratic charity can't even things up."