It reminded me of the story Wayne Gordon tells, after moving into the inner-city. After several break-ins, he asked God: "Why are you letting this happen to us?!" God's response was unmistakably clear: "What makes you so special?"
Just because we chose to be there, should we be protected from what our neighbors go through? Just because we are Christians? Just because we are "good people"? What about the Christians in that neighborhood who have put up with this for years? What about the good people who have lived there forever and have bad stuff happen to them. In the Bible, Jesus reminds us that God shines the sun on everyone, and the rain falls on both.
When Lauren came back, Yasmin, the 15 year old from upstairs, immediately asked if we were still going to move in. Lauren told her that it takes much more than that to scare us away! By this happening, we received a wonderful opportunity to show our new friends that we are not going to be here one day and gone the next. That night, the two girls from downstairs came up and hung out with Lauren and Hillary for a long time. Sierra is 16 and pregnant, and excited about us helping out with her baby shower. She told Hillary that they are pretty new here, too, but are probably going to stay for awhile. Are we going to as well? She asked. Hillary said that we were planning on it, to which Sierra replied "Good".
The night after Johanna got mugged, I woke up in a panic after having a dream about being lost in the dark and running and running and not being able to get to safety. God immediately brought Isaiah 26:3 to my mind: "He will keep in perfect peace, her who's mind is steadfast, for she trusts in Him." God promises peace - but our job is to keep our mind steadfast. We think that trust is from God proving some sort of physical good, like being protected, or staying safe - but our trust is in God because HE is good, and HE is in control. It is a deeper surrender than the promise of things going well, our lives being safe, our houses being un-broken-into. But the world is a broken place, and it is into the world that we have been called. So we pray for God's will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven instead of prayers for safety, and we keep our minds steadfast on God.
A few months ago, the manager of a liquor store only 2 stores down from our church office was shot while working one evening. He was a wonderful, kind man named Eddie that all of my homeless guys just loved. (www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/crime/person-reportedly-shot-loop-chicago-20110506) I was the only white person at the funeral, which was held at a large funeral home on the south side. The thing that struck me most about the service was the way that people spoke and preached. You could tell that they had been through this more times than one. Their words of comfort did not promise that bad wouldn't happen again, but assured that through the brokenness, God was good, and God was in control.
The unique timing of our break in reminded me of the time my parent's car was stolen. It was the first morning in their new house in their new neighborhood that they had come into as an intentional community. They woke up to find out that not only had their car been stolen, but the trailer attached to it had been randomly dumped down the block and around the corner at the very house that needed to use it that day. Dad said that they learned that they could either choose to let it bother them, or choose to see that they could find other ways to function without it- which they did. A week later, the police found the car, abandoned, yet still working fine. The interesting thing was that "Sorry" had been carved into the drivers-side window.
and then, God...
answered my question. What makes me so special? Nothing, and everything!
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