Sunday, March 23, 2008

A Heart for My City


I took a drive around Albuquerque yesterday, and when I say around I mean literally around. I traced my trip on Google Earth and above you can see. I started going south and from there I circled the city.

For me drives are times when I pray and think through things. Yesterday's drive was for me a time to pray for the city that I live in. I drove around noticing the diversity Albuquerque has and how easily you can go from a upper middle class neighborhood to a area filled with homeless and rent by the hour motels. I need to be reminded that Albuquerque is not all suburban "utopia" and that Albuquerque is a broken city filled with broken lives, this is true in every neighborhood. I was honestly refreshed for ministry and feel a renewed burden for this city that I think in some ways I had sort of lost sitting in a church office everyday. I wonder how many times Paul walked around the cites in the Roman Empire? Acts 17 shows he was observant of the surrondings he ministered in.

I hope to fit these drives in more often and include my family in them too, as we pray and seek what God would have us do in this city. Dave Bruskas, pastor at City on a Hill Church here in Albuquerque said that our city is beautiful to look at from the mesa or east mountains, but it is filled with broken lives in need of Jesus, never is that so apparent then when you take a 2 hour drive around this city.

What is your city like?

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