I had been doing some work for an inner city hospital and was making my way out the front lobby when a man in a white T-shirt burst through the front door holding his hands against a very large red area on his gut. In a loud and desperate voice he pleaded, "Where's the emergency room?" He had just been shot.

That was my first real encounter with life on the streets of an impoverished and volatile community, but it wasn't the last.

We've had to make a number of trips to Chicago during the last several years, mostly on business, but sometimes personal. During our journeys around the south side of the lake, startling messages about the economy, capitalism and justice invade our mobile cell of comfort.

We have taken a number of routes into the heart of the city, and each one has provided insights. The route that is usually the quickest takes us right by a hospital. Each year its emergency room receives 25,000 visits—many related to gunshots, stabbings and other acts of violence or abuse. Of the patients served, 80 percent are dependent on Medicare and Medicaid.

Before we get too close to the city, we always make sure we have plenty of gas. We could fill up at a gas station just down the street from the hospital, but in this poorer section of town we'd have to pay maybe 30 to 50 cents more per gallon. Something is wrong with this picture.

Those who have a heart like God's are concerned about justice for the poor, but the wicked are oblivious to their plight (Proverbs 29:7). What would it mean to become real partners with God in His work of providing justice for all?

Gary Burns is the communication director for the Lake Union Conference.