Looking for the good life?

I know for myself it's easy to love my neighbor when it's a person who's got a flat tire on the side of the road. I can take a little time, help fix the tire, get back in my car, and never see the person again. It's my actual neighbors I have trouble with. I have to deal with them every day. But love requires steadfastness and fidelity.

I remember when we were buying our recent home. I wanted a yard, I wanted a driveway, and I wanted a great neighborhood where there were no troubles and I never had to deal with the neighbors if I didn't want to. Maybe I'd invite them over for a cookout or something.

But we didn't have the money to get that kind of house. So we got this house where we live next to a set of apartments that are pretty transient. We're not in the neighborhood we desired, but I found it interesting that we want large, glorious homes with nice yards that separate us from people. I think it should be the opposite in our churches.

There are two kinds of itinerancy, one is following Jesus, and the other is the restlessness of the market place.

With God's grace, we have the capacity to make and cultivate things and places that are truly good. In making and tending to things in this world, we cultivate human life. David Matzko McCarthy