My Why



Good afternoon, friends. I apologize that I haven't been as active on this blog as I would like lately. I hope to be able to get some interviews with local business owners, aldermen and other constituents within this beautiful city of mine soon. Apart from this goal; however, I wanted to take a moment to talk about my "why" as I feel God has been communicating it to me.

While this blog is primarily about community development and documenting my own efforts that stem from a passion for my Chicago community, I've realized that I cannot separate it from my faith as a Christian. In reality, it is BECAUSE of my faith that I feel called to this journey of being a better neighbor, serving where I can and becoming more aware of the needs of those around me. Far too often, I've found myself feeling wrongly ashamed of it and avoiding the topic altogether, particularly around non-Christians. This is my commitment and declaration that I will NOT fall into this trap any longer. My faith is what gives me compassion, empathy, and love for my community; a community that is often vilified by the media as one that is solely defined by violence, hate, and fear.  Jesus Christ is the ultimate role model when it comes to caring for the community: he regularly reached out to, healed, and showed love to all around him, ESPECIALLY those whom society at the time had deemed "unclean" or unworthy. The Bible is filled to the brim with examples of his outreach and love for the poor and oppressed  (Isaiah 41:17, Isaiah 25:4, Psalm 12:5, John 4:4-42, John 8:1-59, Mark 5:21-43, Acts 10, etc).

I was inspired by the message that my pastor shared with us in church this morning: that the Gospel, or "good news" of Christ dying for the sins of each and every one of us is FOR EVERYONE. It may seem as though this is self-explanatory, but all too often many of us are turned off by Christianity because of the failure of those who profess themselves to be Christians to communicate and live out this beautiful message. God's people come from every tribe, every nation, and speak every tongue. He is the author of diversity, despite the fact that many who claim to follow Him often act as though this is an unimportant detail and prefer to keep those unlike themselves at an arm's length. When we commit ourselves to live for Christ above our own interests, the Spirit can and does break through our biases, prejudices and preconceived notions about our neighbors. As my pastor so eloquently noted today, all this petty "clamor yields to the harmony of praise and worship" of Christ. My goal in stating this is not to convince each of my readers to come to faith, though I'm always open to theological questions and discussions.

 Rather, I am making a commitment to living out this beautiful message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-21), not as someone who is "above" or "beyond" those I'm reaching out to and seeking to love as some do so ignorantly, but as an equal. I'm only human, and we all have sinned and "fall[en] short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). God views us as pure equals due to this fact, and we also should aim to view one another this way. It's only by His Spirit that we can live out our divine purposes, thrive and truly lift one another (Romans 8:26). Thus, it is impossible for me to separate or act as though my faith is a commitment apart from my love for the city of Chicago. I seek to love and serve because He first loved me (1 John 4:19).

Comments

Popular Posts