Yesterday was an interesting journey.

One of the teens I work with E-mailed me. His dad took him completely off of his medication for bi-polar disorder because his dad doesn't believe in that disease. See, M (the teen) moved here at the end of the summer. His mom shipped him here from elsewhere in the US. He was addicted to meth and had gotten kicked out of school. She didn't know what to do with him.

M started showing up at the end of July. He is a sweet, skinny, punk lookin' guy. Right away, the other teens took him under their wing. Under their tutalage, he has gotten off the drugs and life is looking up. Except for the big mess of a relationship with his dad. Obviously that's not working out too well. He got kicked out of the house last night. Now he doesn't know what to do. Neither do I, all truth be told. I want to jump out of my chair and make some calls and get some co-conspirators so we can keep him here in this town and get him all better.

But that's not really my job, is it? When I see M, I see a regular teen who has so much potential and such a great personality, combined with a spirit that really does want to succeed that I can't help but to be a little broken-hearted. If he goes back to his mom's, the old people and the old habits will be waiting to put their arms around him and lead him off into oblivion. He is at a crossroads. He either will become an eternal junkie who constantly makes bad decisions and will probably repeat his old man's mistakes that were pushed onto him, or he will decide once and for all to give the finger to the world and start living life to take care of himself and start making good decisions for himself.

God, come clean up the mess that is so often our lives.