Life In The City: August 2007

Monday, August 20, 2007

Involved in the mess

In his book, God in the Alley, Greg Paul describes the journey he has been on as he learns what it means to be and see Jesus in a broken world. Over and over again, he is challenged - and challenging us as Christians to get outside the safe confines of our own comfortability, our own walls that we've erected and to truly engage in the messiness of others lives.

He says, "This kind of active, fully engaged presence requires tremendous discipline....How do I practice this presence among people who are, much of the time, engaged in activites in which I can't - don't want to - participate? When I think of trying to be the presence o fo Christ in this fashion, it no longer seems benign and faintly condescending. Instead, it seems risky, uncomfortable, humbling. Giving money to some panhandler is something I know I can manage; it can even make me feel good about myself. But embracing him as a brother, literally putting my arms around his smelly, drunken, psychotic, and possibly bug-ridden person, grappling with the concept that he, too, is beloved of God, precious, and made in his image - well, this provides an unnerving peek into my own soul."

I read this book with great resonation. This is what Christ really calls me to. Not some glossed over, show me what I want to see kind of engagement but getting involved with peoples lives on a gut wrenching soul level. All these concepts look good on the pages of a book...but how do they look in the midst of real life? My real life...

This is what I have been faced with over and over again this summer. As I am involved with students lives whose anger and hurt goes so deep that they are just as likely to curse me out as they are to hug me. As I am faced with brokeness and tragedy in students lives that ranges from physical, sexual and emotional abuse. As I see the way that has shaped a mindset that causes those very same kids to not value their own bodies and lives.

There are a hundred pat answers I grew up learning in Sunday school and yet those answers seem to fall short when faced with the multi-layered web of pain, anger, demoralization and sin.

The questions have rung over and over in my head..."did I really mean it when I said that I really wanted to know you?" "did I really mean it when I said that I wanted the real you?" "did I really mean it when I said I wanted to be involved in your life - even with all of its disappointments and disgustingness?"

The answer - yes, I think I do, but Lord, I feel helpless and am desperate for you to walk with me each step of the way as I venture in - past the pretty stuff into the reality of peoples lives.

Monday, August 06, 2007

A Summer of Firsts

While it wasn't the first time I brought a youth group to New Orleans on a summer mission trip, it was the first time that I attempted to bring a combined group from 2 very different youth groups - merging them into one united team to be a blessing to the people of New Orleans. Our group of students was made up of 8 students from a upper middle class, suburban church and 12 students from a lower income, urban youth group.

It was also the first time Urban Impact (the inner city ministry we went to) had ever had inner city youth come to them for a National Project Week.

There were lots of challenges. Many of my students from the city have only recently committed their lives to Christ...so in a way they were just a step ahead of many of the kids we interacted with in New Orleans.

However, they added a dynamic that brought life, energy and excitement to the week. I believe the week was a week of incredible growth and formation (beyond what anyone could even articulate at this point) for every person involved - not just the people from our group but the participants from other groups, the staff at Urban Impact and the people of New Orleans. We got to see a glimpse of God's glory in a way that we never had. Though it was perhaps the hardest trip I've ever led (revealing many of my own weaknesses) it was the best. Check out all the pix below!!

Me and my boy Dingo...although, now he is all grown up! This is his 2nd summer as an intern with Urban Impact. He will graduate from college next year and hopes to be a youth pastor!