Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Students of the Neighborhood

This past Sunday night's worship gathering stirred up both hope and conviction within me.  We laid out a large piece of cardboard and drew out the grid of our neighborhood, Golden Hill.  This neighborhood represents the unique soil in which we have been called to be a community that reflects and embodies the Good News of Jesus.

As we began to each draw out places of significance (neighbors homes, the community center, half-way homes, corners where our homeless friends live, etc...) we could begin to get a glimpse at what God is already doing in this neighborhood.  It was a beautiful practice of celebrating the faithful work of God and his Church...an acknowledgement of the Thin Places - places where heaven and earth are only thinly separated.

Further, it was seeing all of our neighborhood, even the places that we often overlook, as places that have potential to reflect the goodness of God's Kingdom.  While God's good work is unfolding in Golden Hill, his dreams for this place and its inhabitants are only just beginning.

May we, God's People, not be paralyzed by the pain, brokenness, segregation, hopelessness and poverty that surround us.  Instead, may we take on new eyes...eyes that see reconciliation, restoration and redemption as a tangible reality we are called to represent in every interaction of everyday.

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