Is Goodness indeed so far away? If we really wanted Goodness, we should find that it was at our very side. - The Analects of Confucius, VII.29

This past spring my church was vandalized. It was late Easter night, the holiest of all days for Christians. Two boys, ages 18 and 14, shattered our sign, breaking it clean in half. I knew who did it long before their recent confession.

West Bloomfield is not a large town. These boys were not lost in the crowd. There is no crowd. They were lost in a neighborhood that neglects its own standards - surrounded by adults and institutions that chose to be blind, deaf and dumb.

We speak accurately of neighborhoods, families, and kids being "troubled." Certain groups, people, and places become release valves for dark impulses we all carry. Pressure finds the weak point at which to gather and blow, and the weakness is almost always a matter of economics. There is nothing under the pavement of this "dangerous" street corner, on the walls of that "notorious" house or in the wiring of particular human souls to cause rancor, desperation and crime to burst forth. We all own much of the trouble they cause. We increase the pressure on neighborhoods and people when we push away from them.

In my little cow town, we have nearly lost two kids under the shadow of our high-holy steeple. This is the day when I ignore it no more. This is the day when I finally own up to the purpose my God has set before me, and help stem the tide of troubles bearing down on two young men. I put off yesterday what is now much harder today.

And what's your trouble?