how we got to Northside

I got up really really early today because i have a cough that only works sideways.

and i posted on www.lewminator.com about Dad Weiss' sickness and Mom Weiss' passing.

and i reflect again on the fact that we don't live here because of a specific calling to "urban ministry", or inner-city hoo-ha. We moved here because a dear friend, sister, mother...was dying and we needed a house with a ramp and enough room to do the stuff.

This funeral home was the open door, perhaps the "bait", to get us into this neighborhood. We looked at many homes, but this was the only one in over 2 years of searching that had the right combination.
-Handicap access
-first floor bathroom just off a bedroom
-proximity to hospitals

all that and we ended up CLOSER to the majority of our church people, with room to meet and practise hospitality. to be honest, city living is the life for me, so far. Being a longtime skateboarder, living on concrete suits me well, with a coffee shop and internet just down the road.

our neighbors! Oh the blessing of living among noisy, chaotic, needy, ignorant, foolish, godless, drug-addicted neighbors. (sorry for not mentioning the smart, motivated, artistic, intelligent, rich and poor, idealistic, debauched, drunken, amazing, depressing people, too) you can just step outside and relate to Jesus, who had compassion on the multitudes, even though he was exhausted, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

(if you mind that last paragraph, i kind of do, too. I don't want anyone to not have their shepherd. if I had created the universe, we wouldn't need shepherding, but it wasn't me. it was God. Oh yeah, and if i created the universe you'd all be my slaves, too, so count your blessings.)

yes, over the years I hear a drum beating louder and louder, ominously threatening judgment on unfaithful religion in the land... lukewarm christianity and money-worship will fall.
...but here, i see the hand of Jesus reaching out in compassion and patience to the violent, lost sinners who don't know Him. ...here, loving your neighbor and turning the other cheek really show up in your behavior. every day is a day to love, in actual ways--you know, reality of action, NOW.

I can skate down the street and end up talking gospel with serious hardcore criminals, punkers, atheists, Mayan Calendar people... I mean it's astounding. This is even the "gay" neighborhood! Where better? (I don't believe in gay people)

And it is here in Northside...no, it is here in the pierced palm of Jesus' hand...that I have come to find my final denomination--i am one of the Jesus people. like when the pharisees adn sadduccees and the teachers of the law and the scribes were like, "These guys were with Jesus."

That's all I want to be. That is all we're supposed to be. The whole John the Baptist thing with the "I must decrease and he must increase" thing... the whole 2 corinthians 4-5 clay pots (grubbykupps) and "...put off this earthly tent..." thing...

So on my other blog I storied out on how our family got here...
and here I'm touching on how being here has been...growing us...

blessings. richest blessings on you, dear readers.