Peace in the City

Yesterday our excellent student ministry team at North Way East End threw a block party at the ministry center. The smell of grilled hot dogs filled the streets of the city, and street chalk invited young people into the church for an evening of fun. I drove through Homewood to round up some kids for the event, and while I was waiting for two kids that I knew to get ready to go I was approached by several other kids on the block to see if they could go to the block party, too. I only had room in my car for five kids, and there were probably twenty kids who were interested in going. I knew I needed to choose wisely in terms of who could go. I think God gave me a sudden burst of discretion, because one of the young men on the corner walked right up to me, looked me in the eye, smiled at me, and asked, "Can I go?" I had never seen him before. "Who are you?", I asked. He told me his name, and he said, "I want to go with you, but we need to ask my mom first. She's really overprotective since my older brother was killed a couple years ago." I asked a few probing questions, and he went on to tell me how his brother had been murdered in Homewood. I knew it was a top priority for me to be able to take this kid to the block party at church, so I went up three sets of stairs with him at his house to meet his mom. I introduced myself to her as a pastor in the community, I explained where I would be taking her son, I gave her my cell phone in case she wanted to talk to him while he was gone, and she agreed to let her son go with me to the block party at church. Let me just say this... he had the time of his life at church! I think he'll definitely be coming back to North Way again. I know God is going to do amazing things in his life!

My heart has broken for the violence that happens in the city where I live, and God has given me a passion to do something about it. I just can't sleep at night knowing that children are suffering from broken hearts, and that young people are dying violent deaths in my own city. I can do little on my own to make a dent in the amount of violence that happens in the city of Pittsburgh, but God can work through me to make a big difference. God desires peace in my city, and he wants to work through his church to achieve his mission to bring about peace in this world. God is on mission to redeem every part of this world all of the time. God loves the people in the inner city of Pittsburgh, and he is bringing about his peace and transformation. I love that God gives me the opportunity to live and minister in a neighborhood that is often characterized by violence and death. I don't see violence and needs when I spend time with people in my neighborhood... I see God's grace and many assets in resilient people who are desperately searching for the love of Christ. My interaction with the young man and his mother yesterday was just one example of how God is working through me and many other people to bring about peace in the midst of difficult circumstances. I really don't care what happens to my life, in terms of safety or achieving the American Dream, as long as God is able to work through me for his purposes every day. That's the best feeling in the world!

I believe with all my heart that God wants to work through modern Christians to bring about his peace in many differen kinds of situations, and that the process of transformation leads us to step out of our safe comfort zones in order to embrace risk for the sake of advancing the Kingdom of God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared, it is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God's commandment, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes. Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God. They are won when the way leads to the cross." American Christians can do something about the violence in our cities, and it starts with us sacrificing our own personal comfort and safety in order to be able to reach people with the love of Christ. Ironically, when we give our lives away to others we find life in Christ.