Romans 15:18:
"For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed…”
The Confession: There is Pain in Living Life In Our City
One of the reasons I want mission teams to come is because I can see our city and our life through their eyes. I love taking them to Gas Works Park where they get to see the beauty of our city from far away. But, looking at the gleaming downtown towers and the idyllic lake, they only get hints of what it is really like to live here. But then I send them out walking the streets.
Then they see people living homeless. They smell dried urine on the sidewalk along with messy piles of trash. They notice used needles and hear the honking of impatient drivers. They start to notice that the friendliness that they first encountered wears off and people seem to become impatient and prideful.
I see city through their eyes…and it can be painful.
There is pain in living here. Pain the teams won’t know because they only come for a week or so.
There’s a reason why people don’t want to move into the city.
Many don’t feel safe.
It is crowded. Loud.
Governmental corruption is hidden, but only thinly hidden.
It is expensive. More than I knew. We did much better financially in Texas than here.
Relationships are hard. Most people stay to themselves, keeping a polite distance. It takes extra work to start a relationship and, often, those relationships tend to be unstable and fragile.
We are deeply grieved that people we dearly love leave because of the city. Though we understand, it still breaks my heart.
I get angry at people in our city. I resent that people will take advantage of the fact that I will defer to them and serve them. I am angry when I pick up trash at Summerfest and I look up and people talk to me as if I am the hired help.
The influence lostness has on my girls…and us…is painful. In one of his books, David Wells states that “Worldliness is whatever makes sin look normal and righteousness look strange.”
We live in a society that celebrates sin and thinks of God’s ways as strange.
This worldiness creates a society that people indulge in, but then want to leave. Sin is self destructive to people and to societies.
The darkness in the city and the darkness in people is darker than I thought it was.
And then there is the matter of whether or not God is at work. I often question whether he is or not. Some days it is clear that he is working and doing good. Some days that understanding seems foreign to me.
There are days I don’t want to be here. Don’t want to invest my life in others. I want to give up. There are days I want to give up everything almost everything in me says it’s not worth it.
The Challenge: Don’t Give Up on our City. Don’t Give up on the God of our City
My challenge is not for you to love Magnolia. Nor to love Seattle. Those are just names given to areas. The challenge is this: don’t give up on the people. Don’t give up on Jesus’ work and his heart for people.
I have long left behind a romantic view of living in the city. Reality is never as romantic as we think it will be.
Now my desire is merely to live a life in which I can look back on 30 years and recognize- wholeheartedly- that Jesus accomplished something through us. To look back and to have have the joy of knowing it wasn’t on my shoulders, not my work, and the joyful burden of people’s lives is his to carry.
You may agree with these words, but still object by saying, “I am not called to what you are Wes”. There is truth to that. What Jesus will accomplish through me will be different than what he will accomplish through you.
That’s good! Our callings are only different in who we are called to, who God has placed us among in our everyday lives.
We are called to the same thing: to live a life of love, just as Jesus lived a life of love. (Ephesians 5:1-2) An “incarnate” life. Present. Available. Compassionately joyful, sacrificially serving, and long-suffering.
First Thessalonians 2:8 says “so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.”
I had a very simplistic view of that, thinking that if I loved people in the way Jesus loves people then they would appreciate and honor that. Sometimes that is true, but the reality is that most are left unaffected, guarded, protective, self-absorbed, only looking for what they can gain from others. It makes me want to be protective and self-absorbed too and maybe just lob the gospel at people rather than sharing my life with them.
Sharing life with people can be disappointing. It will be disappointing, but a life lived pouring ourselves out for the good of others is more life and more life-giving than retreating into our self and staying safe. The call to love people like Jesus loves people is not just for their sake it is also for ours.
We are workers together with you for your joy, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:24.
We have a decision in front of us.
It is the same decision for the people of Israel had when the spies came back with a fear laden report that the people in the land were too strong. The decision is real: will we trust what Jesus has said, even if, the circumstances are overwhelming or will we shrink back and miss out?
But here is why our decision is different than theirs. There’s was a one time decision. They made the decision not to go in the land…and they made it once.
Ours is a daily decision. It is a daily decision, as to whether we will believe what God says or not. Will we believe his character, his power, his heart or will we lean on our own understanding and rely on the way we think about things?
Will we settle for a life that we can control and feel safe or will we follow Jesus to places that are wild and adventurous and out of our control?
Will we follow him to people who are broken and need more than we can give them? Will we follow Jesus to people who are wealthy, seem to have it together, who don’t think we have anything they need?
Will we look at our own soul and recognize that- in someway- we were just like them before we were rescued by Jesus?
Our calling is not to build a city, but to help bring a kingdom. A kingdom defined by grace. The invitation from Jesus is not to go to the easy and deserving (they don’t exist!) but to love real people who don’t deserve God’s goodness or our love. That Spirit-given grace for others is what will transform our city and its people, from the inside out.
Will you commit to the people of our city since Jesus has committed to them… and only because Jesus has committed to them?
Will you commit to living a life that is out of your control…one that only Jesus can accomplish?
When we run out of patience, and love, and desire, and hope then we will find that Jesus will accomplish his long-suffering, love, desire, and hopefulness through us.