okay, so on Friday we spent the night at home and Saturday we invited people over to help us refloor our kitchen. it's a little strange, but there's a group of us here in atlanta, that are really into home renovation.

anyways, we are ripping up ceramic tile and laying and cutting backerboard when i glance out our kitchen window and see phil and his brother (our former next-door neighbors who were arrested last week) and their landlord, christy. i walk out and talk to phil. (an aside, phil our next-door neighbor is not to be confused with our friend phil who wrote the theme song for the national day of prayer)

i walk over to the fence and call to phil who comes over. i ask how he's doing, and he tells me a little about where he's been. so i tell him that we really wanted to visit him in jail, but we didn't know his last name, so we have been calling up different people to try and find that out. he tells me his name and we talk for a little while. he doesn't seem to know why someone came and banged on our back door, but he does recognize the name of the guy once i told it to him..

we talk a little longer and i notice that he seems tired. he tells me that christy may let him and his brother move in until the end of the month. honestly, that sounds pretty shady to me, but i let it go b/c for some reason i feel that now that i've talked to him, things are worked out.

we're not back at home right now b/c until we finish the flooring job, our water is turned off so we could move some of the appliances.

it just seems like the ups and downs of inner city life are par for the course. i almost feel safer after talking to phil and expressing our concern for his well-being. maybe that's naivete. the thing is, all of our neighbors were unsurprised and happy to see him go. i understand their concern, but this neighbor thing has definitely redefined our ideas about city life, crime, those involved in such endeavors.

i was watching the video of the woman in Jordan who was one of the suicide bombers. for some reason, her bomb didn't detonate, but her husband's did and he was the one that caused the explosion at the hotel with the wedding. all i could think about while watching this woman confess was "Jesus has forgiven her."

in some parts of the world, some not too far away from our back door, the choices are limited and the circumstances are bleak. i don't want to tolerate or justify, but i think we need to examine the totality of the situation. we have to exemplify the freedom and fullness of a life with Christ as loudly as the voices offering a life of crime.

we have to display that the life they are searching for is so much closer than the life they may be contemplating. will it be enough? could we possibly reach everyone? these are not barriers, but opportunities to be lived with the power of a living God bridging that divide.

posted by Kelly @ 9:57:00 AM