John 20:21: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
There is a reason that we decided to plant our lives among a certain group of people in a neighborhood.
To be present.
At first it was about being "strategic," but that wore off pretty quickly. It is hard to be present. Really hard. It demands vulnerability. It demands being open even when I don't feel like being open.
So "strategy" is slowly being reformed into "commitment." Commitment to people. Commitment to a place. Being rooted. Being present... and all of the joys and struggles that come with that.
I am ever-so-slowly beginning to understand why God wanted to come in the flesh. Yes, there was "strategy" in that Jesus came to live among us, eat our food, and be around the dinner table, but there was much more than just that. Jesus was sent to be present. Being present mean more than just "showing up." It means to be...how do I word this..."heart involved." All in. Committed to people.
Jesus came to demonstrate to us how God's heart is to be committed to relationship. That meant being there in the mundane and being there in the exciting.
Though I have so much to learn- and so often find how I just want to do my own thing rather than being connected to people- the truth is that the more we understand the heart of Jesus to be present with us, the more that we ourselves will want to be present with him and with those around us.
Even those who might drive us crazy or want to drive us out of their lives.
“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
―C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves