I’m feeling so good right now man. Seeing the faces of kids, teens, adolescents enjoying themselves and being so full of life and love. I love seeing teenagers this way because it seems like a lot of them lose this at an early age. Look around and you’ll see in the high schools there’s sad faces, lonely faces, depressed faces, rejected faces, anxious faces, scared faces. There’s faces of all sorts and kinds. You hardly see any faces that are full of love joy and life. They’re absolutely loving life. It’s a blessing that is beyond measure. It can’t be known simply through words. Seeing kids you only get to know for 1 ½ days, and seeing them in a picture and having a tear come to your eye because you miss them and want to hang out with them at the very moment. You want to see your rocket get launched not even a twentieth of the way that your kids did. You want to throw a football and intercept a pass and return it while juking every kid that tries to tackle you. You want to be tackled by the kids to let them know they’re strong and can get you down. You want to throw the frisbee (something you’re not good at) and look like a fool doing it because they’re so much better at it than you. You want to take off your shoes and socks and get on the sand volleyball court and play Nuke ‘Em until your feet hurt. You want to take a mattress off of the bed and slide on it down the hallway of the cabin. You want to chase them around the whole entire camp just because they stole your hat you probably shouldn’t have taken to camp anyways because it’s brand new and is clean. It only gets dirty by the end of the week, but you don’t care because "your kids" had fun. That is only a blessing of joy that comes from God. That is only a blessing that can be obtained by being a humble pilgrim searching after the same thing they’re searching for. Life, acceptance, recognition, love, joy, peace, and hope. All those things are only completely found in God. That only comes by sacrificing yourself to allow a kid to see what obedience is like. That only comes from sacrificing your rest, your sleep, your studies just to make a kid feel accepted and loved for one weekend by someone they consider a role model and want to be just like one day. And as a salty, wet line is making it’s way down my cheek, I’ll end by saying this...if we don’t take the time out of our "busy schedule", out of our "everyday lives", out of our "to do lists" to just play with a kid or a group of kids and REALLY get to know them and REALLY get to connect with them by being real, we’re missing out on seeing a huge aspect of knowing our purpose of life. We’re missing out on seeing revelations come to us at the snap of our fingers. We’re missing love, joy, comfort, passion, relevance, hope, acceptance, recognition, productivity...we’re missing out on life as we know it. Because kids know life better than we do.

Alright, so I've been up for a while jammin' to this song...it's by TuPac (2Pac) and it's called Ghetto Gospel...it's off of his album Loyal To The Game, which came out after he passed...to be specific I think it was 2004 when it came out.  A lot of controversy in Tupac's life and whether he was saved, predicted his own death, heard from God on numerous things...just a lot of controversy. This song is really a poetic expression of who he was and even shows his heart in a BIG way...and what I see in this (and in his heart) is compassion for others and the world as he saw it...and remind you this had to be written sometime before September 1996, when he was gunned down. So, peep these lyrics out and think for yourself...just a pointer, look for the truth in these lyrics too...and convictions. Also, I'm trying to become real and be transparent...it says the "N-Word", but I honestly could care less cuz in TuPac's words "It ain't bout black or white, cuz we're human / I hope we see the light before it's ruined"...

Ghetto Gospel - Tupac Shakur

Uh..
Hit 'em with a little ghetto gospel

[Chorus: Elton John]
Those who wish to follow me (my ghetto gospel)
I welcome with my hands
And the red sun sinks at last, into the hills of gold
And peace to this young warrior, without the sounds of guns

[Verse 1]
If I could recollect before my hood days
I'd sit and reminisce, nigga da bliss of the good days
I stop and stare at the younger, my heart goes to ‘em
they tested it was stress that they under
And nowadays things change
Everyone's ashamed of the youth, ‘cuz the truth look strange
And for me it's reversed, we left them a world that's cursed and it hurts
‘Cuz any day they'll push the button
And all good men like Malcolm X and Bobby Hutton died for nothin’
Told em they could get teary, the world looks dreary
When you wipe your eyes see it clearly
There's no need for you to fear me
If you take your time to hear me, maybe you can learn to cheer me
It ain’t about black or white, ‘cuz we're human
I hope we see the light before it's ruined
My ghetto gospel

[Chorus]
Those who wish to follow me (ghetto gospel)
I welcome with my hands
And the red sun sinks at last, into the hills of gold
And peace to this young warrior, without the sounds of guns

[Verse 2]
Tell me do you see that old lady, ain’t it sad?
Livin’ outta’ bags, but she's glad for the little things she has
And over there there's a lady
Crack got her crazy, yet she's givin’ birth to a baby
I don't trip and let it fade me
From outta’ the frying pan we jump into another form of slavery
Even now I get discouraged
Wonder if they take it all back, will I still keep the courage?
I refuse to be a role model
I set goals, stay in control, drink out my own bottles
I made mistakes but learned from every oneAnd when it's said and done, I bet this brother be a better one
If I upset you, don't stress
Never forget, that God isn't finished with me yet
I feel his hand on my brain
When I write rhymes I go blind and let the Lord do his thang
But am I less holy?
‘Cuz I chose to puff a blunt, and drink a beer with my homies
Before we find world peace, we gotta find peace and end the war in the streets
My ghetto gospel

[Chorus]
Those who wish to follow me (Yea, ghetto gospel)
I welcome with my hands
And the red sun sinks at last, into the hills of gold
And peace to this young warrior, without the sounds of guns

Lord can You hear me speak?
They pay the price for being hell bound