Under the sun

I took a field trip with the Pine Ridge Dorm boys and girls to Chadron for a movie (An American Carol) and some Mcdonalds. We ate our mcdonalds at the local park. I ate with a group of three high school boys, we started talking about life on the rez. They told me they don't like going home on weekends.( The dorms are open during the week not the weekend) They said there families don't want them there, they talked about drugs and alcohols appeal while staying at home. They talked about parties and girls and sex and all I did was listen. They kept reverting back to the fact that life sucks. In my therapist like questioning of there situations I asked if there was anything worth living for. There answer was "no", they said that there was no way anything could be worse than there lives now, that where they were now was Hell, and whatever comes next would be heaven. They are living in hell. In our preparation for this year the phrase "joining God in what he is already doing" was thrown around alot. Sometimes I question that God really is working here, It feels like a hopeless place. I am not a wise man, I don't have answers or explanations to why things are the way they are, but I'll leave you with some words from a wise man.

"Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed— and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors— and they have no comforter.And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive.But better than both is the one who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun." - King Solomon