A Drive Through My Neighborhood

A short drive in my neighborhood can tell quite a story. I invited one of my mentees to church tonight, and he only lives three blocks from my house. On my way to pick him up I first noticed a red plastic cup lying in the middle of the street. We had given that cup to one of the kids who stopped by to visit us, and he hadn't made it twenty feet from our doorstep before he chucked it on the street. It was one small piece in a sea of litter in the streets around my house. I kept driving, right past a crack house. Traffic creeps up to that house at all hours of the day and night... people driving to my neighborhood to buy drugs. I turned right, and drove past a cleared lot with new straw in the place of what used to be a house of prostitution. That building was torn down a couple weeks ago. The prostitutes just moved down to the next block. I kept driving past junkees and dealers as I made my way to the next block. I drove past a few abandoned houses and abandoned businesses. Weeds have overtaken the sidewalks. I arrived at my mentee's house, and I got out of my car to talk to his mom who was smoking a cigarette on her front porch. As I talked to her, about six police cars pulled up and blocked off the street. The dealers and addicts scurried away from their corners. I kept my eyes focused on my mentee's mom, and I kept the conversation going. She became concerned, but she still sent her son out to my car to go to church with me. With mentee in tow, I maneuvered my car past the cop cars and we headed to church. Just another day in Homewood...

Litter. Drug addiction. Prostitution. Abandoned buildings. Vacant lots. All of these things are indicative of the brokenness that has seemingly overtaken my neighborhood. But those things are just the outward signs of brokenness. They don't tell the whole story. Behind those things are people... real human beings who Jesus created and loves so much that he gave his life for them. Jesus didn't focus on outward signs of brokenness during his ministry. He focused on the condition of the hearts of the people who experienced brokenness. That's why Julie and I have been intentional about looking past the physical signs of brokenness in our neighborhood in order to build relationships with people. We are good friends with people who litter. We have friends who are crack addicts. We have friends who are prostitutes. We know people who call abandoned buildings "home." We have friends who use vacant lots as playgrounds. What the enemy desires for evil, God is able to transform. God loves the people in my neighborhood, so we love the people in our neighborhood. God's profound love and grace for the people in my neighborhood are the real story of what goes on here. That is why Christians need to be obedient to God's call to enter into the brokenness of the world... God desires to work through us in order to transform people and places.