I finally did it. I got an apartment on my own! What next a house? I feel very grown up. Sarcasm aside this has been a move I have been looking to make for the past two years since I read the book Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. It seems as if everything I have been reading over the past three or four years has been pointing me to the understanding that God loves the outcast and the oppressed. The scriptures go so far as to say that the “poor” report to God on our behalf to let him know how we are doing (as if He doesn’t know). I have become a victim of my own theology as I can no longer talk about something that I am not actively participating in myself.
I heard recently that per capita Stockton has one of the worst crime rates in the state and nation. There are a lot of reasons that I don’t want to live in Stockton (heat, minor league sports) but one of the worst crime rates in the state and nation is a reason that I would never want to leave. That is exactly where the church should be. Over the past month I have found myself driving in the downtown Stockton area praying and dreaming of what could be.
The neighborhood I am moving into is full of bars on the windows. It is a place in which safety has been trespassed. It has been a place of unhealthy touch and toxic addictions. But what would it look like to move into an area like this and reclaim it. What if a park became a place where people played soccer and had BBQ’s instead of gang fights and drug deals. What if broken down lots were reclaimed and turned into gardens. I have found myself dreaming a lot lately…
Pictures to come…
Tomorrow I go on a prayer jog. Perhaps as I gain more courage it will turn into a prayer walk.
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