Things have been pretty tough in Homewood lately. After living in Homewood for three full summers now, I'm learning that summer is difficult because violence is at its peak and the young people that we work with need us more than ever because they are out of school and often left alone to grind out an existence in the midst of urban poverty. Plus, my wife and I know that we have come under some pretty intense spiritual warfare this summer. I know that we have an enemy that hates that we are following Christ with all of our hearts, and that we are making an impact for the Kingdom of God in this neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Where the enemy has a vision for desperation and destruction, we know that God has a plan for the people in our neighborhood to prosper and overcome their hardships. After six years of working in Homewood, I know that God still wants to work through me and my family to reach people with his profound, life-changing love.
Julie and I had to laugh this morning when we woke up to the news that something bad had happened to us, we prayed about it, and within probably half an hour God had taken the "bad" situation and turned it into a positive so that God would be glorified. Lately, God seems to be working like that every single day! It's almost too much to take. If fact, many incarnational leaders end up quitting after a year or two because this whole incarnational urban ministry thing is almost too much to take. We feel very often like sometimes this is all just a big fiasco, and life would be easier if God would just give us a more comfortable calling in a more stable location. Sometimes Julie and I long for the days when life wasn't so hard on a daily basis... the days when we thought we were safe and secure on the path of the American Dream and God got a hold of us and showed us the calling that he has given us to reach young people in Homewood and people living in poverty in the city of Pittsburgh. This calling is difficult, but we're not about to quit. We know God's up to something... it's just a matter of us staying the course and being obedient.
In his classic book on incarnational urban ministry, Sub-merge, John Hayes describes how incarnational workers among the poor initially experience the jubilation of the "ideal" for a short period of time before struggles begin to make life an "ordeal." When we first start serving the urban poor, "We feel liberated from the 'real world' and its drive to get ahead and we find new purpose in working for eternal results among the most needy. For a few of us, the danger and risk of ministering on the streets adds a glamour that contributes to the ideal. Eventually, the ideal gives way to the ordeal. Typically, the ordeal comes to us in the form of unmet expectations and culture shock... Unfortunately, the ordeal is a season during which many Christian workers among the poor burn out and/or check out."
So, life in Homewood often feels like an ordeal. It just seems like too much to take sometimes. But, we can choose how we respond to the ordeal. When the realities of urban ministry set in, it's important to learn what God wants us to learn in the journey through the desert and come back through the other side ready to make an even bigger difference with our lives. The only other option is to quit and try to run back to life as we knew it... and that's not something that we're planning to do. God desires to work through us in our adversity. That's how he operated all throughout the Scriptures. God works through us best when we endure through tough times. Or, as John Hayes describes it, "The long journey across the desert is His way of starving our last attitudes from Egypt, or in some cases, the hangover of consumer Christianity. He tests us in the desert to see if we will sacrifice our new freedom for security. The ordeal is really the process of hammering our ideal into His ideal." A few years ago, I stopped living the American Dream and I embraced the gospel of message of Jesus Christ without the baggage of cultural Christianity. I am free from cultural captivity, and I wouldn't trade that in for anything that this world has to offer. I know this tough season of urban ministry is simply a matter of the cost that comes with joining God's mission to reach the lost in this world. And, for me, that's what this one short life is all about.
1 comment:
This is so true, and I can totally relate. We have had some tough situations lately that have made life in San Salvador an "ordeal." It's so tough not to ask "is it worth it?" As we come up on two years here in November, I find myself sometimes wishing I could bail and run back to the American suburbs. But we are committed for the long haul and I'm so grateful that God still is using our family, despite my struggles and doubts.
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