You Belong to the City


Reflection
I took some notes for prayer this morning. What I couldn't help but be struck by right away as I did the concentric circle thing for spheres of influence, was that, in modern life, many of our inner most circles are not concentric. My family life, church life, extended family life, and city life are not overlapping. At one time they were for my wife and I, but then we, as moderns, moved away. To be fair, that is not only a modern schema (Abraham, etc), but he moved and brought his whole clan and started something new. Maybe that's what we're doing. But Sadie Ann, Ella Rae, Muhammad, Musa, Nuah, and Nyla, Junior, and Ezra are all cousins living very differently and all over the country and world. How this schism? Can it be redeemed?

Interestingly, I can tie this together with considering the rift with the Catholic church, which had so much unifying potential, but I get the feeling it was born amiss, amidst the power considerations of the Romans. And so, wishing we would all come together under the banner of the Catholic church is also a miss. For all they have right, they just don't have some essentials right. And it's so easy to have the essentials right, that it makes you wonder why they would get it wrong. Such a perversion is perhaps a grace? To make it obvious? Or is there more to investigate and consider? 

No doubt the latter. If Rich Mullins (considered Catholicism) and my cousin (Catholic) can be persuaded...

On the other hand, we can all be persuaded of many things. The answer is not in the convincing persuasion, but the journey in the long direction. 

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, there are things that you have put in my care. Help me to tend to those, to grow Your gardens and flower beds. To weed and plant, and watch and care, while you water and give increase. 

In Jesus Name,

Amen


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