Two Front Doors

I’ve been immersed in stories about this movement that I’ve been calling Ordinary Radicals. (Incidently, this is the title of a film my wife and I watched redently – check it out here) You can get lost in blog after blog and story after story about this stuff. This is the movement of Christians who are actually living out Jesus commands about helping others. They are doing many little things with big love. I’ve been inspired and made aware of these missing things in my family’s life. And I’ve been wondering what God wants us to do with all this stuff.

I was going to meet my friend at Panera for our weekly breakfast but he had to bow out. We meet down in the city because it’s equal distance for us each. In stead I headed to this other coffee shop downtown that I had found online. I wonder if God wants my family to move to the city in order to have more opportunity for community.  So I came down here to put my feelers out.

Well, I feel God confirmed in my heart that He brought my family to Beavercreek, not downtown Dayton. He brought us to the suburbs, not the city. I think my heart is yearning to meet new people and find out who they are and what they think. I think I have all these theories about who non-Christians are and what they think but I don’t know any, really. One quote I heard once said something along the lines of “Churches are offering answers to questions that nobody is really asking”.

Maybe someday we’ll move to the city – my wife and I would do it in a second. I think the idea of living in the city and loving and serving the poor sounds good. The problem is, I’m not really that great at loving people. I’m pretty sure God wants me to learn that first. I think reaching out in love in the suburbs may prove to be more challenging because there are two front doors blocking the way to relationships. There’s my front door which keeps us safely sheltered in the comfort of our home – and keeps people out. And there’s my neighbor’s front door which I have to either get past or convince my neighbor there is a good reason for him to leave the comfort of his safe shelter.

I’m writing this from a coffee shop in the city – a place where one can just walk down the street to and there is a group of neighbors already congregated. No so on my street. So therein lies (lay?) the challenge before me. Get past the two front door and start reforming and re-imagining community.

So stay with me. If we have the courage, we will follow where God leads us. I’m convinced He will open doors and show us the people He’s been pursuing – people He’s been waiting for a Christian to come along and be His hands and feet. Then maybe you can be encouraged to do the same. And little by little lives will be made whole again and people will get to know the real God and realize how amazing He is.