One of my Facebook friends, author, mother and wife Kendra
Broekhuis, (Brook Hice) has posted recently about her effort to paint a mural
on her garage door. Kendra and her
family live in an urban section of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The neighborhood is OK, but they knew going
in that there were the usual urban problems and issues. They purposely moved there with the idea of
serving and ministering to the community.
Kendra wrote a book about some of that ministry effort from their time
living in an apartment complex before they moved to their present home. Her book, “Here Goes Nothing…an introverts
reckless attempt to love her neighbor,” is an honest, yet humorous and compelling
look at doing ministry next door.
Back to the garage door.
Kendra writes that she wanted something on her door that was more than
just a mural. She says, “But most of all, I wanted to write part of
the blessing that our pastor says over the congregation when he dismisses us.
Every Sunday he says, ‘Now, in the power of the resurrection, let us go forth
and bear witness and seek the peace of Milwaukee as those who love our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.’” So she enlisted
the help of some art students and their teacher from a nearby school to clean
up the door and paint a Milwaukee skyline on the door along with a
representation of the dismissal blessing as a class project.
Of course, that thought is taken from Jeremiah 29 where God
tells the captive Israelites who are in Babylon to, and I quote: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens
and eat what they produce. Marry and
have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in
marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number
there; do not decrease. Also, seek the
peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to
the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
I don’t know about you, but sometimes this principle of
seeking the peace and prosperity of the place where I’ve been called to live is
difficult. I look around at things and
wonder if there is any way that I can have any kind of positive influence on
anything. The political shenanigans, the
poverty, the societal breakdowns, sickness & disease, and the general
brokenness of life and living weigh heavily on me.
But then I go back to what God told His people some 2,700
years ago. Build houses. Settle down.
Marry. Have families. Find beauty and sustenance in the creation. Seek the peace and prosperity of the place
where you have been placed. This is Jay
again. And, while you’re doing all of
these ordinary things, God will work in extraordinary ways through us to redeem
His creation, often one person…one family…one community at a time.
That was exactly what Kendra was doing when, while living in
that apartment complex, she reached out to her neighbors with random acts of
kindness, encouragement, and the love of God in spite of her inherent shyness
and introverted nature. You’ll have to
read the book to find out how that all turned out…and by the way, you’ll be
blessed by doing so.
If we allow the brokenness of the world to put us into
states of depression and despair, we are hurting ourselves and failing to carry
out God’s purpose for us. God calls us
to be in the world, but not of the world.
Don’t check out of life and living because of the brokenness of the
creation. Tap into the power and grace
of God to not only face the world head on, but through the ordinary work of
life and living allow God to change and renew His creation and crowning glory
of that creation…One Human At
A Time.
May God go with you through the rest of this week as you
seek the peace and prosperity of the place where you have been sent. Blessings.
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