There is no truth without love.

My bud showed up at the mission with two black eyes and a broken leg. Said he’d been at the wrong place at the wrong time. I said, “Dude, you went there.”

The story of Dez Bryant’s childhood nearly gave me nightmares.

It's all about integrity.

A new rung on the ladder: Moments of unusual hardship and sacrifice.

Prayer for myself often takes the form of imagining myself climbing up a ladder out of a pit, the pit being my current circumstances of poverty and homelessness. Getting out at the top represents a return to the normal life of the American mainstream. I didn’t start with a ladder in there, but I decided to add one to symbolize the various structures and tools that others have made available to me — and eliminate the possibility of clawing at loose earth.