Jeff Delp's Blog
Peace Like a River in the Neighborhood / 06.08.09, 08:35 AM
Our faith tradition has a rich history of people “getting away” to places of refuge and quiet to reflect and connect with their God. There is indeed something serene and beautiful about placing ourselves in the midst of God’s creation without the hindrances of man’s creations all around us. A superhighway can be a beautiful thing, but it pales in comparison to the beauty of a mountain range, or a scenic river. As an outdoor lover for most of my life, I had no problem with this theory and often sought out times and places to go and get away from the city to reflect and be close to God.
A few years ago, I was sitting in a meeting and we were talking about having a board retreat for the organization that I was working for at the time. All the advantages of having the meeting somewhere outside the city were given, and you can guess what they were. One person on the board, someone that had grown up in the city and lived in the city most of his life, spoke up and talked about how he has had to learn how to hear God in the midst of all the noise of his life. And that as an organization that worked with people who lived in the city, many of whom who lacked the resources to be able to access the beautiful surroundings that are only an hour’s drive away, it would be good for us to learn how to be quiet and rest in the midst of the city. Too be honest, I agreed with his statement in theory at the time, but in practice, I was not there.
The past month has been a pretty crazy time for me personally and professionally. Lots of things have changed in my life over the past month: 4 babies were born to people that I care about deeply, some of my best friends in Atlanta for the past 8 years have moved away to Kansas City, our church is going through merger talks with another church, a community garden has started in our neighbor with a little but of struggle, a traumatic experience for one of our team members occurred, and, just regular life happened in the past 30 days. There has been a lot to process, and this type of month normally would push me to want to “get away” from the neighborhood to reflect. However, getting away has proven difficult due to the time demands on myself for my job, my family, and everything else I am doing.
What I have found this weekend surprised me deeply and brought me back to this meeting I had several years ago when we talked about being still and quiet in the city. This weekend I found myself sitting on the benches at the neighborhood senior center with my son and looking at the flower boxes they planted on our street, walking to the YMCA to sit in the hot tub (is it OK to use the YMCA just for the hot tub?), planting in our community garden, and best of all, sitting in a hammock on a neighbors front porch with a water feature drowning out the passing noise of the neighborhood, giving off the peacefulness of a mountain river. Several times during the week, in the midst of just doing life in the neighborhood, I found myself deep in thought and processing what has all transpired the last month and last night sitting in hammock I realized that I have learned how to be quiet in the city.
This was a wonderful revelation for me. If I was able to have these quiet moments on my street, and the streets around me, that means regardless of ability to get away, others around me have access to the same places. That is our biblical call as Christians, to love one another as we love ourselves. To encourage my neighbors to access and take the opportunities around us to reflect, be quiet, and get close to God is loving my neighbors as myself because being quiet and reflecting is important to me, and I want other to have that access. The reality is, if getting away and being in the mountains is the only way to connect to God, than no matter how hard I try to take people with me, more than half of our neighborhood will be left out for a long list of reasons. But finding these places here in my neighborhood allows me to encourage myself, and my neighbors to find God right around the corner. And there is something encouraging about knowing that God is a resident of our neighborhood and can be found just down the street! Thanks be to God!
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thanks jeff, that was really good. it’s always encouraging to hear from people when they are able to find that still small place amidst the business of life and city-living. : ) thanks for all your work for us here!
By john watson / Jun 8, 10:43 AM / #
Hey Jeff, What a great post! Thanks for the encouraging words.
Now that I think about it, could I post a link to it on the DOOR stories from the city blog?
By Krista / Jun 8, 10:36 PM / #
Thanks for the encouraging words Krista! Feel free to use it however you’d like. Good to hear from you.
By Jeff / Jun 9, 04:19 PM / #