“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near.” -Mark 1:15

The past 7 months here on Eucalyptus have been nothing short of a whirlwind, a really, really good one. That’s not to say there haven’t been bumps, sharp turns or even minor crashes along the way. Last June, I moved in here on Eucalyptus Ave. with a guy named Kris Cohen. (he's barely tolerable because he's a Biola grad...) We were wide-eyed and eager to explore what God had in store for us. I had no idea what to expect, or what it would feel or look like to consciously choose to follow God into this neighborhood. Now in the midst of the rhythms of life here, I just might have more questions now than when this experience began; like what does growth and the Gospel look like as it takes hold in our relationships with the neighborhood teens who come over for a meal and Bible study? What does love look like when someone is doing something harmful to themselves like using drugs or excessively drinking alcohol? How do we speak God’s truth into hurting relationships around us? One thing I do know, and am confident in. It is that God knows, and He’s always known. That’s “Good News,” for me, my neighborhood, and this city! God is in the business of redemption and restoration of wholeness. No, things are not as they should be, but God is moving. His Kingdom is, and will continue to advance here on my block. It blows my mind that God includes, commissions and WANTS us to take part! God is so good. Pray God will give us vision and wisdom as we seek Him moving forward!

Wooden Heart

click here for Listener "Wooden Heart"

Needed to be reminded of this today.

How do I (best) love my neighbor?

"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." The second is this: "Love your neighbor as yourself." There is no commandment greater than these."
-Mark 12:28-31

How do I (best) love my neighbor?

This is a question that has come to the forefront of my mind over and over in the past months of life on Eucalyptus. I remember the first weeks in the neighborhood being an introductory honeymoon period… Kris and I were the new kids on the block. Starting out, I think we were happy just to seek out acceptance from the neighborhood kids that came by our place on Wednesday nights for a church sponsored meal. In a new place with a new culture, it was quite the adjustment, but exactly what I signed up for. 

 I have long felt a conviction to learn what it means to love my neighbors next door and the Fellows program finally left me out of excuses. Over the course of these first three months, it has been a journey as these new relationships are being built and grown.  It has been a crash course in learning about myself, and how to best use my understanding of self in relationship to my neighbors. It has also confronted me with the depth of our depravity and our great need for God’s restoration. As I have gotten to know the stories of my neighbors and have spent more time with the kids on Eucalyptus, I have hurt with and for them and the ever-present brokenness in our community and all of us. Brokenness of; crumbling families, harmful relationships, over-sexualization by the media, and abuse of various drugs. There have been days that have been full of joy and hope, and day that have felt empty and near hopeless, and I feel at a loss for how to help or what next steps to take.  But if I believe the gospel to be true, I can have faith and trust that God has been longing to restore rightness to these relationships long before I have, and is already working to redeem and reconcile this brokenness. Now it’s our job as Christians to get involved in that process and to love well! 

Seems simple right?

Loving is so hard, and love hurts. Loving well takes wisdom and perspective, wisdom and perspective that we as humans cannot possess on our own. Pray along with us as we seek God’s wisdom and direction, and continue to live in community with our neighbors, doing our best to love, continually longing for His redemption and healing to come, right here amongst us.

Should we abolish wealth?

Click here for video- embrace this guy's spectacular accent!

Today in out Fellows meeting we viewed this clip together and discussed the question "Should we abolish wealth?" Watch this clip of Claudio Oliver sharing about how we should embrace the values of limits, renunciation & sacredness in our lives to do the work of abolishing wealth.

A New Kind of Poverty

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God. 

 Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.”

Luke 6:20-21

Through the course of these past weeks, the topics of the poor and/or poverty have come up in several conversations and my understanding of the subject has expanded and shifted. There is no doubt more to poverty than meets the eye. I would love to share some of what I have learned, and I’ll start by asking you a question.

If you were to stop reading right now and go to the top of your browser right now and search poverty, what images would you expect to see? What sort of emotions and feelings would you affiliate with such a word?  

-a Lack of: Shelter- $$$- Ability- Freedom- Food- Resources

I just searched it and found countless images of sad malnourished children from various third world countries around the globe. The individual people, our brothers and sisters, captured in these stills are no doubt experiencing intense material poverty. Most often we think of poverty in terms of material lack. But is that all there is to this brokenness called poverty?

This past week at our Wednesday night gathering at “The House” (Kris, Jeudy and my house) with our neighbors, Jeudy and Becca shared about their experience on short missions trips to Mexico. They touched on how through connecting with individuals in the communities they visited in Mexico, they saw incredible faith and intense joy in a place one might not expect; in lives gripped by the unyielding hand of material poverty.  A place of beautiful reliance on God, when they had nothing else to rely on. Maybe Jesus know what He was talking about when He shared the beatitudes with us…

A second conversation about poverty occurred at our bi-weekly Community Fellows training where we discussed a chapter out of the book, “When Helping Hurts,” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. (I would recommend this book to EVERYONE)  The chapter was entitled “What’s the problem?” and included a whole new perspective and definition of poverty. A perspective shared from the material poor themselves. They shared about poverty primarily in terms of, “shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness.” This starkly contrasted my initial thoughts on poverty and the poor. For them it was less about the physical things they lacked and more about the mental and perspective repercussions of the material lack. This is a HUGE and necessary paradigm shift. I realize that for me, as long as poverty remained cornered in the physical realm, I could ignore the true relational poverty I was dwelling in.

“Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings”

            -Bryant L. Myers

Poverty can look just like me… or you.

Sin is the root, and inceptor of this prideful perspective I so often can have of myself. I love being self-sufficient and okay--- ALL THE TIME. It is underneath that façade of collectedness and self-sufficiency that my poverty is exposed. I am really good at convincing myself I don’t need anybody. This is my brokenness and my struggle. I was made for community with creation, others and myself, yet I make choices every day that deepens and widens the chasm between myself and the shalom God desires.

Thank God for my neighbors, the needs they have exposed in me, and the opportunity to live in community with them.

I need them.

Bellflower High Class of 2012

Jocelyn and the crew

Kero and the guys

 Congrats to Jocelyn

D'Montae

And Kero!

Some of the regular Wednesday night neighbors graduated last week and we joined them to celebrate. Congratulations to Jocelyn, Demonte and Kero! Such an accomplishment! Blessings upon your next steps!

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