Hey folks. thought I'd share this old friend of mine with you all. this is the spoon that is stuck in the asphalt, just outside the local playground. That's the playground with the police and the drug dealers, when we first moved here.
That's the playground across from the local store they demolished to cut down on the drug trade...
The playground just a half block away from Chris Challis' place--now in the process of a prolonged (slow) remodeling... its gutted, with a trash chute leading down to a dumpster from a 2nd fl. window.
The cold has kept us in, and sick, lately. The time to get out and skate, and walk, and talk to neighbors is almost on us, though. Playing, walking, skating, talking, shopping groceries--all of the local life connects us to folks...
a lot of these folks are really awesome. all of them are loved. and some are pretty dangerous--remember that one time that two of us were pistol whipped, surrounded by a mob of 25 youth? Remember that time when the Indianapolis church folks came to help out Chris Challis and we got shot at?
Remember how chris C. left this world?
3 years back I broke my foot skateboarding.
2 years back--3 ribs.
Last year i pulverized the tendons of my wrists. pulverized.
...all of that skateboarding. I'm such a wimp. such greater dangers surround us. How protected we are...
Please pray for us as we enter a new season here. When we first came here, we were mostly college students. We did a lot of ball with kids and bbq.
This year we are mostly married folks with jobs.
and we're being called to give up so much, again, to be fully available to Jesus. Some of our readers adn visitors have viewed us as some kind of special people, but the reality is that we're being called to give up all the same--all of us.
Pray that we'd live radical obedience to the Way, and not be deceived by the deceitfulness of riches.
and you. don't YOU be deceived, either. Jesus doesn't want you to collect this world's wealth to yourself for your own comfort. He wants you to be friends, and become one of, with people like our beautiful, dangerous, tragic, beloved neighbors.
alcoholism
drug addiction
lead poisoning
ignorance
sexual abuse
no fathers
child abuse
you wouldn't believe the consistency with which Satan has treated humanity. Don't be a pointy building christian. Be a daily walking, fence-talking, bringing groceries to grammas, christian.
move.
live somewhere where your daily walk does something. Where being a neighbor is an act of love and rescue. Where kindness isn't just part of the code, but a revolutionary statement of the Kingdom.
and for some of us: have we gotten complacent? because Jesus won't be pleased with less than the passion we discovered at first. to leave all behind for the joy of loving on him, daily.
the fellowship of the cross.
think on these things.
and what are you chasing, anyway? what is it? usually it's a combo of pride and fear swirling in a swim in American Status-Quo-ianity. Mediocrity.
Some kind of safety...
what is that?
a quick Bible read'll chip that one into mulch, brah.
enjoy the spoon. 3 years in, its still here.
when they repave Chase Ave, i'm gonna dig that spoon out and make it into a necklace.
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