I tucked the girls into bed tonight and I joined my wife, Julie, on our front porch for "porch time" to debrief our day with one another. The first thing she said to me when I stepped onto the porch, rather nonchalantly, was "You just missed three gun shots." She pointed to the block next to us and said, "They came from right over there by Tioga Street." We did not hear or see any emergency responders to the shots, so we assumed that nobody was injured. Her statements triggered a conversation about our work in Homewood, and our perspectives on the violence in the community. It was not what I would describe as a fearful conversation. When I arrived on our front porch, she wasn't taking cover behind her chair. It was nothing that dramatic. We just had a matter-of-fact conversation about the gun shots that she heard. In fact, she had been writing a poem/song to God in her journal when she first heard the shots. I asked her to read me what she had written, and the mood of her song changed greatly between the lines she had written before the gun shots and the lines written afterward. Julie reflects differently than I do (usually in poetic form), but we both have recognized the importance of daily reflection for people who are involved in urban ministry.
The gun shot conversation is not neutral, though. Somebody got mad enough to fire off some gun shots. What would make somebody arrive at that point in life? What was their background or life story? Was it a 15 year old doing something like that for the first time with a surge of adrenaline, or was it a 33 year old seasoned veteran of the streets who had half-heartedly released some shells just to make a statement into the air? I don't know. All I know is that a quiet night, and my wife's poem to the Lord on our front porch, were interrupted by three gun shots. Have gun shots become "normal" to us? What does that mean?
When we first moved to Homewood, we would have both gone to bed anxious and restless with the thought that gun shots could happen at any time that close to our house. I think that we will rest easy tonight knowing that God is in complete control of our lives, and that he has placed us here in Homewood to proactively do something about the gun shots. Every day we help to cast an alternative vision for the young people here in Homewood. We know that God has a future for each of the young people that we work with here. We will be able to sleep tonight because we know that we are at the center of God's will for our lives. I'm guessing that most married men in Pittsburgh tonight did not start their "porch time" conversations with their wives with the statement, "Hey... I just heard three gun shots." A lot of Christians will not be called to urban ministry, but I do hope that most Christians will be able to go to sleep tonight with the peaceful thought that they are at the center of God's will in how they live their lives. That peace does not necessarily come from the safety that we build up for ourselves. It comes in supernatural ways from the God of the universe who calls us all to embrace risk and live life on the edge for the sake of the kingdom of God.
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