echoes of redemption

As the sun comes up on our second day in New York City, I wanted to jot down a few raw observations from our time here…

Our trip has been wonderful. And the streets, shops and restaurants are much less crowded than we anticipated.

The city is also far cleaner than I expected… but after walking around all day, I feel far dirtier than I expected.

Individualism is rampant. It is partially a compensatory mechanism (because it’s the only way to do life and stay sane with this many people this close together), but it defines the city and it’s people in deep ways.

Central Park is absolutely inspiring and I can’t imagine living here without access to it.

The heat, humidity and general lack of air conditioning are a beating. (This is intensified by a six week-old…)

Speaking of a six week-old… Emily is amazing and has helped Eden take everything in stride. Fortunately noise does not both her, and she is obsessed with music (already), so she ranges from ambivalent to happy depending on where we are and what style of music is being played.

And lastly, my patience and our ability to go with the flow and make things work is going to have to go way up in order to thrive here.

More later, but that is a start.

I met a guy the other day who identified himself an inventor.

I was instantly intrigued. “Wow, what have you invented?”

“Well, nothing…” he said, “not yet.”

So he is an inventor who has not invented anything.

Which made me think, I would tell people I’m a church planter and if they asked what I had planted, I would have to answer, “Well, nothing… not yet.”

So I’m a church planter that hasn’t planted any churches.

And then I realized that a lot of people I know would identify themselves as redeemed by Jesus, but many of us still live in some very shattered rhythms of life. And we find ourselves thinking and resounding in very un-redeemed ways sometimes.

So we are redeemed people who aren’t all the way redeemed.

And this is how the Kingdom of God works.

Because sometimes it’s better to identify yourself as what you are growing into instead of by what you are growing out of.

Sometimes it’s what keeps you on the path. Keeps you focused. Keeps you living forward into what God has for you.

So, while the inventor has not invented anything, his mind is always going, always looking for new ideas and always solving problems. So he is an inventor. And while I have not started a church, my dreams, plans and energy are all working toward creating a community of people striving to live like Jesus in this world. So I am a church planter.

And while we may stumble, struggle and make mistakes in this world, we are a people fully redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

We are already, while we are also not yet.

This really was an unbelievable fire – shed full of fertilizer, wooden pallets and fuel (yep, fuel – you can see the barrels if you look closely). Fortunately no one was hurt.

I took this shot when I was a senior in high school. I was a photographer for our school yearbook and happened to have my camera with me when I saw the fire. It’s probably the best photograph I’ve ever taken. Of course, what no one back then saw was what went in to that shot.

I had been studying photography for four years… and sacrificing to buy good camera equipment. I spent the afternoon at this fire – probably burned through eight rolls of film. And after all of that I got one good shot.

A lot of the times I look at other people who do something amazing and forget how much work went in to what they do. Because I don’t see the training they’ve done. The sacrifices they’ve made. The time they pour in to what they’re good at. All I see is one glimpse of one moment in their life.

Which makes me wonder if I’ve given up on some things too soon.

That I haven’t stayed dedicated to the things that matter – because no one else sees them.

That I’ve looked around myself, and instead of getting encouraged by people, I let jealously of their success discourage me.

And I quit before things get good.

So maybe it’s time we do an inventory.

What are you doing now that is going to be something you do great later?

What have you stopped doing that you should start doing again?

What’s something that no one is applauding now, but if you stick to it could change the world?

Sometimes the little things done consistently over long periods of time make the biggest differences.