Getting Real
So much bad happens that I can't even disclose. In short, our kids are into some heavy stuff. We get these rude awakenings from time to time that Cleveland is not a good place. Don't get me wrong: I love it here, and I love the people. (And I break from Caleb love into Jesus' love when I love the people that are hard to love.) We really have to be walking in the grace of God in order to minister to people walking in shameless entitlement.
One little story I can tell... It's actually about me being the unloving one. Lesson learned though. Jesse's phone went missing this week. We tracked it all over the city using Find My iPhone. When Cardin and I finally caught up with the guy, he wanted $20 for it. I asked him if he didn't have anything better to do that take people's phones out of their cars. He was offended though; evidently he had only found it somewhere. From his perspective, he was some sort of patron saint of Cleveland to return the phone (for money). However, I did trash a situation wherein I could have definitely repped Jesus... And so I came back later and told him that. Who knows what God will make of that situation, but He could turn it into something; He's in that line of work. I will be praying for this stranger. And I definitely learned something as I try to toe the line between a tough, hating hood and a though, loving God.
I am not the only one learning things; I am seeing some real growth in Nacho and JP even. They have really become part of so much we do, part of our lives. Being here in the city, a tribe-like model for ministry has revolutionized how I see things. Sam, Cardin, Matt, and me on Tuesday mornings; Man Time with all the teens on Thursday afternoons; Jesse, Mike, Ronald, me on Thursday nights; the burgeoning camaraderie of the twenty-something leaders at Shoreway; this is what I mean by tribes taking shape. Something more than gentle words and folded hands. We are bands of brothers, and that is becoming more true and real every day, even as we wade through some heavy stuff together.
One little story I can tell... It's actually about me being the unloving one. Lesson learned though. Jesse's phone went missing this week. We tracked it all over the city using Find My iPhone. When Cardin and I finally caught up with the guy, he wanted $20 for it. I asked him if he didn't have anything better to do that take people's phones out of their cars. He was offended though; evidently he had only found it somewhere. From his perspective, he was some sort of patron saint of Cleveland to return the phone (for money). However, I did trash a situation wherein I could have definitely repped Jesus... And so I came back later and told him that. Who knows what God will make of that situation, but He could turn it into something; He's in that line of work. I will be praying for this stranger. And I definitely learned something as I try to toe the line between a tough, hating hood and a though, loving God.
I am not the only one learning things; I am seeing some real growth in Nacho and JP even. They have really become part of so much we do, part of our lives. Being here in the city, a tribe-like model for ministry has revolutionized how I see things. Sam, Cardin, Matt, and me on Tuesday mornings; Man Time with all the teens on Thursday afternoons; Jesse, Mike, Ronald, me on Thursday nights; the burgeoning camaraderie of the twenty-something leaders at Shoreway; this is what I mean by tribes taking shape. Something more than gentle words and folded hands. We are bands of brothers, and that is becoming more true and real every day, even as we wade through some heavy stuff together.
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
- William Shakespeare, Henry V
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