Just a Few Streets Over
My wife is reading the book Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. She was noticing how the main character, a young girl who must go to work as a maid for a master painter, leaves her home to travel just a few streets away from where the she has lived her whole life; yet, she had never ventured into this part of the city before. One of the reasons appears to be because of the traditions and customs of religion or faith. The girl’s family is Protestant, which is the traditions and concepts that she understands and finds comfort in, and she must now work for a Catholic family. Reading the book, you hear the girl’s perspective almost like reading her journal, and she describes this part of the city as if she had never seen it before, as with new eyes. This idea of seeing the city with new eyes relates to me. I have lived here in Indianapolis now for about a month and I still feel lost most times. I take the same roads to get the same places, because I am not sure if a few streets over I can make it back to where I started. I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I am pretty sure that if you take a look at your life, you will see that you too find the comfort in your own traditions or as we call them today, routines, and thinking of traveling a few streets over just does not fit into the routine.
Being new to Indianapolis, my family and I are working on making our own routines or traditions. We are excited to see where God leads us as a family during this season of life. We get to make new traditions and new routines. I get excited for the Spring Break trips, the Saturday Work Days and the Summer to begin. This city and organization is new to me, but with a willing heart I am serving right where God wants me. We will have many churches with youth groups, college aged mission minded students, families, and groups of all kinds that have never been to this part of the city. They will see with new eyes something different. They will learn something new. They will be taken a few streets over from the comfort of what they know and be brought to another place; prayfully, a place filled with different traditions, different routines, different people, all working together for God’s kingdom! I see that working with others just a few streets over will help me be able to get used to being in this new city, a new routine for me. I see that just a few streets over I will get to know the neighbors, the people of this city. Just a few streets over I will become a better part of what God has in store for me.
We here at Mission Indy have been praying for you and your plans for this summer. We pray that as you begin to make your summer plans and get an idea of what you can do, that you include showing Christ to others, just a few streets over.
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Great article, Matt.