Mixed Up With The Gangs

     It is a strange concept--continually leave a place and never knowing who you will find alive upon your return. Within a mere four months of my stepping away from Micah this past July, one of our Isaiah boys went back to the streets and was murdered by the gangs.
     Though this is no new story for us, the same tragic question still has yet to be resolved: why leave us--an open-armed, feed-you-til-your-stuffed-on-food-and-love family--to return to the starving streets? What do those streets really offer?
     I'll tell you what they offer: a lie.
     A few years ago, I introduced our teenage boys' Bible class with a question: "Why do people want to be in gangs?"
     My typically unresponsive group of gotta-luv-em punks quickly proved my hypothesis: they aren't mute after all. Answers flew back at me: family, belonging, protection, provision, purpose, love... All the things, ironically, that the gangs also threaten to take away if you 'make a wrong move.' Birds' eye view, we know that the 'family' of a gang is really no family at all. A gang feeds on fear--out for itself. I'll protect you so you'll protect me. You cross over onto the wrong side, you're out. No mercy. Leaving its members cowering under the promise of life--yet always fearing death, from those outside and even from your own. What life is that--always pleading for survival? What belonging is found there--trapped alone in a body bag? Again I ask, why do people want to be in gangs?
     It would be easy to judge, wouldn't it? From this bird's eye view. But how often do we live this way--searching for our own group that is going to keep us safe from 'the others.' From those we don't understand. From those who are different than us. For those who are out to kill us--maybe not physically even, but our reputation, our culture, our way of life. Racism--gangs whose label is their coloring. Popularity--the jocks and the computer nerds. Class systems. Politics. Nationality. Whether its a gun in the hand, a bomb in the storehouse, or an insult in the mouth--gang violence infiltrates humanity.
     Big scale or small, I tell you again what all these gangs offer: A LIE.
     Yes, our hearts long to find an identity in something bigger than ourselves. Our hearts long for family, protection, purpose, glory, love. And we will do almost anything to get it... even kill.
     Is this really what we want to become? Murderers? All so that we can 'survive'? Survive what--a few tragic, fear-filled days longer?! There has to be a way out!
     There is.
     I know of one gang that doesn't operate by fear but by love. A gang that isn't constantly worried about death, because it can never die and neither will its members. A gang that doesn't retaliate, but returns evil for good. A gang that when you 'slip up', instead of finding your death sentence, you find mercy. A gang who doesn't need to fight for territory, because its territory is secure forever. An inheritance that can't be stolen. I am in this gang. The gang of Jesus Christ.
     No, the members of this gang don't always perfectly live out its mission. But those members are covered by their leader's name. Blood money is a pretty big deal in any gang--this one, too. But in this case, the blood spilled by the leader doesn't scream 'revenge!' This gang's true followers know that this blood means mercy. This blood means life. The members of this gang take Jesus' promise seriously: eternal life. Guess what that means? All those enemy gangs out there have no weapon that can scare us off. Our weapon--love. Because our mission is not to exterminate the people we see coming after us. Our mission is to love them into our gang. United as one, under the perfect life-giving leader: Jesus Christ. His mission will not fail. His family is forever. And the cost of entering his gang--our own cross-is worth every ounce of blood spilt. His reward? Life forever. With him. The God of Love. Praise be to Jesus!