Filling the void

It is sad to sometimes feel that I have to “sell” a worthy cause of loving others and to recognize your neighbors. I think that many of the people that look at the extremist lovers think we are only about inner city poor, and think we are glamorous rock stars fighting for a worthy cause. I wish the latter part would be true just because I feel like some would begin to really listen, but we aren’t. Most of us are just people who are tired of saying, tired of the same old thing, and tired of people not being able to live life of joy and hope.

I am in search of trying to figure out how to pass on the redemption of Christ, that sets us free from condemnation, and the worry of today. Everyone needs to hear about the love God has for us in the Old and New Testament. A life of regulation, compassion, justice, acceptance, and love. I have been called to the scary places where there is a lot of violence, but I know there is worse. I know that sometimes suburbia terrifies me sometimes, but they have just as many issues as inner city poor. The system is broken all over the place, and most of us “ordinary radicals” just want to help people feel empowered to chase God’s heart, to drop everything and follow Him. Where you’re passion meets God’s calling in your life is what you are supposed to figure out. Many of us are asleep to awaking to the riches of God’s glory because it is daunting to take a leap into unpredictability in chasing after God’s heart.

It all starts with baby steps, but you have got to move! Go serve someone. Go! Spend time outside of the walls you are confined in most of the day and meet people. These are your neighbors. Go expose yourself to others, share your life with people you do not know. Buy them coffee, bring them cookies, just say hi and find out what they do.

Everyone is dying for community, meaning, and purpose. They just need to be shown the way. Are you going to invite them in? That requires you talking to them. Everyone is talking about the effects of the information age, and saying that we are more connected than ever. Are we really, divorce rates have increased, there is a lot of miscommunication, there is a lot more relationships to manage. There is still the same amount of time in a day, and more relationships to deal with. How thin are you going to spread out? Are you neglecting your immediate neighbors?

Where ever you are, live a life filled with Christ bringing the hope of glory to your neighbors around you. Jesus never gathered the masses, but he met them outside the walls and on other peoples property.

Just in case I Die.

There in an ever present reality of the possibility of getting shot or something crazy happening to me as I exist on the earth that God has filled with great beauty. I feel like there is an odd intensity arising in the neighborhood. I am not sure what it is from, or what to think about it at the moment. There has been a lot of shootings and murders lately just a handful of blocks away from the house.

While a friend was down here, and as I showed him around the neighborhood, we received a little bit of hostility. This has been the first time that it has been a bit aggressive. The reality of it all is that this aggressiveness exists in the neighborhood, and that many have accepted it as normal life. There are a few who are tougher and will challenge some injustice, but most let it slide. I am boggled by the fear and scariness of the potential of being in a volatile situation that could result in my demise. In the end my neighbors, friends, and I need help. The aggressors need to be shown love in great and profound ways, as well as ways out of the cycle. The movement of love, peace, hope, and reconciliation in Christ. It should not fade in the event of calamity. It is the prime time for grace to be shown abundantly and for light to prevail in dark circumstances.

In all, love abundantly, give abundantly, and do not be afraid to hurt a little. My life has been wonderful, and amazing so far, and I do not regret a bit of it. I have lived life to the full, and hope to continuously do so until I die. We are called to bring hope to the world, and we cannot do that in fear. The dark will not shut us out.
It is my wish that my work started, and the people inspired, are to continue to be the hands and feet of Christ Jesus, to the rough and scary places of the world. At the least, just please get to know your true neighbors and share life’s hurts and pains with them.

Chris Jones, Jean please be ready.

Hopefully I will, get to read this, and that we will get to talk about it when I am old and gray haired with a fu-manchu. However many crazy radicals don’t get the chance to live that long.

If you could see what I see

Why is this road, so long and narrow?
Why does my heart cry?

Your people surround me, and my soul gets crippled.
People that bear the cross, sometimes cease to see.
Your beauty is all around us, we often don’t see it right by our side.

My neighbor doesn’t walk like me, talk like me, live like me, but I see beauty in him.
I see beauty in him!

God is before us, waiting for us to recognize him.

He wants to live with us, work with us, shop with us, spend with us, dine with us, walk with us, scream with us, cry with us, hurt with us.

There is no place with us, that He should be absent.

Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ is in me.

He is with me when I awake, He is with me all day.

He tells me stories when I am asleep.

Though he is there, I am scared, I am fearful, and I hurt, not for myself but for others.

The injustices i’ve created by some of my American Dream habits.

The loneliness of standing out from the crowd.

My walls crumble, and I am broken.

explicit topic: SEX

So It has been interesting living immersed within urban inner city culture. Seeing some of the stark contrasts in the way the community lives and life according to Christ. Often at work I get picked on for desiring to live for Christ and being a believer in abstinence and waiting to have sex until marriage. They often make it seem that sex is a must have interaction in the immediacies of life. I sometimes forget why exactly I am waiting, and sometimes just need to be reminded of the issues of sexuality, and physical intimacy. I am always excited when churches seek to talk about explicit issues such as this. My friends at Trinity Vineyard had a forum type of discussion about it a week ago. Check out their town hall recap, and list of resources.

http://www.trinityvineyard.org/articles/Town%20Hall%20on%20the%20topic%20of%20sex

Be blessed

Fathering the Fatherless

Well, everyday that I get to spend in the neighborhood my brain expanded a little bit more to the unknown issues and injustices within the neighborhood. Today, I had a neighborhood kid, Roger that waited for me all morning to get back home from church. He’s an awesome kid, and just wants someone to invest in him. He left with some other friends around 4 pm, and they showed up again 5 pm.

When they arrived the spirit in the air was not happy, something was up. Roger ran inside, and sat at my kitchen table. He buried his head into his arms. 2 other friends came up to the door. They seemed tense about the whole thing as well. I knew bad feelings were in the air. I was kind of in bewilderment about what was happening, and started to question what was going on. I asked the eldest kid, and he denied anything happened. The youngest ran out the door and came back with a big chunk of a cinder block and said, “ He threw this at us.” I felt disappointed in Roger, but knew that couldn’t be the whole story. I asked why he did that, and found out that the eldest was tried to hold Roger in place so that the youngest could hit him.
I asked the eldest if this was true a few times, and got a negative response, and eventually he confessed to it all. It was like pulling teeth. They apologized and walked away somberly.

It was a bit weird to somewhat have this relationship with some of the neighborhood youth in this manner. It is like I am their father. I am a place of comfort and trust with them. It’s beautiful, I want to be able to do so much more for them but its tough because they are not my kids. My heart wants to provide for these kids, and to father these boys into growing men. I am fearful that they will be forced to move away, or that I will not have the time/budget for them.

I need a wife too, I am sure there are girls in the neighborhood as well that are probably having similar issues as many of these boys.