One Night in Homewood

Homewood is an interesting place to live because there are so many positive and negative forces pulling the community in so many different directions all of the time. Last night, for instance, it was warm outside and my children played with some neighborhood kids on our front porch and on the sidewalk and street area. The sight and sound of children playing in the streets is a good thing in any healthy community. My neighbors decided to go for a bike ride in our little corner of Homewood. Several LAMP kids from the neighborhood stopped by for a neighborly visit. We admired to progress of the new homes that are nearly finished right across the street from us. We had some friends from our church over to hang out for a couple hours, and we sat in our back yard and enjoyed the nice, evening breeze while we talked and ate homemade pie. There were no gun shots. There was no fear. It was just a great evening, Homewood-style.

Then, that night, we decided to sleep with the window open in our bedroom because it was so nice outside. I heard some shots. I heard some sirens. I drifted off to sleep. I was awoken in the early hours of the morning to some clanking and voices that sounded like some people trying to break into the houses under construction across the street from us. I rose and peaked out the window, but I didn't see anyone. I did see, however, a common site: drug addicts and dealers driving up to the drug house that is located right next to the local elementary school. I've tried complaining about the house before, but nothing ever seems to change so I decide to just go back to sleep. I think to myself that I haven't seen any police patrolling our area for a long time. It's obvious where the drugs are, and I wonder why the police don't seem to do anything about it. I don't like that it's right outside my door. I try to go back to sleep, and I do for a couple hours, only I'm awoken again close to 4am because the waste management company that empties the dumpsters at the elementary school next to us seems to always come in the middle of the night to pick up the trash. It wakes me up all the time, and it is illegal. I've complained about it, but nobody ever does anything about it. I guess the company figures that nobody cares about what goes on in Homewood in the middle of the night, so who cares if they keep on breaking the law. The driver heads away, and I make note of the company name on the side of the truck. Maybe I'll call again tomorrow. Maybe not. As I'm peaking out the window, the steady flow of drug activity continues at the house up the street. And I wonder... what will this next day bring about in Homewood?

Will good triumph over evil? Will the process of transformation and progress continue, or will the destructive forces in my neighborhood win out? I guess only time will tell. And for the time being, God has called me to live and minister here, regardless of whether the neighborhood is being restored or if it is falling apart around me. I need to give all of it over to God, because it's all too much for my mind to understand. And so that's what I do. In the middle of the night in Homewood, I pray that God will move in this neighborhood according to his will and his timing. And I give all of my anxiety over to God. And I praise God for the ways he blessed me the day before. And I ask God to help me discover once again this next day where he is moving so I can join his work there. And I close my eyes and fall peacefully asleep knowing that God is God and I am not. God has given us the ending to this Story. God wins.