guerilla gardening and grill fest potluck.
earlier this evening.
we gathered, got our marching orders from the abbot, donned gloves and trash bags and plastic bags of seed bombs, and went forth to multiply and beautify this neighborhood where God has gathered His people, this neighborhood that is so broken and has such dark darkness hanging heavy on porches and in vacant gazes and in careless houses.
there is an apathy here that is palpable. we walk down fourth street picking up trash while ez plants the seed bombs. and we come to a house with four adults drinking on the porch. their front yard is covered in litter. and the abbot and i are in a dilemma: we want to serve, not shame. we are embarrassed for their lawn with its fast food wrappers speared by shoots of grass, greasy tins the dog has mangled. we are embarrassed to walk past and not pick any of it up. we are embarrassed they have not done it themselves. we are worried that if we do it, they'll be embarrassed.
more than that, i cannot stop thinking that most of the people we saw tonight seemed only half there. their houses are barely inhabitable, so they barely live in them. their yards are ugly, and picking up litter only makes them slightly less ugly, so they don't bother. nothing except the clothes on their backs and their furniture is theirs, so everything else can rust and rot and fall off and break and it's not their concern.
this is deeply depressing to me. i want our neighbors to know and create and seek beauty, and i know this is ridiculous and naive. i know they're too busy surviving to do that. i know that. but i want it still, for God to fill their spirits and open their eyes and for them to care about something worth caring about. i want televisions to be turned off for once and for people to read books or daydream instead. i want to not see shopping carts loaded with pop and chips and ding dongs and colored water juice and all the other foods that westsiders seem to subsist on, and for neighbors to walk to the community garden that has been planted for them, and pick some real food.
and none of that will happen until our neighbors see the point of doing any of those things. our old pastor tim keller says that people will never give up something they love until they find something they love more to replace it.
cue Jesus.
who is not most importantly about healthy food and beautiful yards, but who is the only person i know who can do things like lead a large group of people - including two drunken men, several skeptics, a couple farmers, a handful of straggler kids, a few former prisoners, several teenagers and some mothers who spend all day picking up messes at their own houses- to pick up messes they didn't create and to plant seeds they might never see bloom.
because, of course, that's what He did, what He does, for us. so it's joyful for me to pick up someone else's trash when i remember that just yesterday Jesus took care of mine when i asked Him to. and ez did not plant one seed without us praying it would land on good soil and become what it is supposed to be.
which is why gardening and picking up trash and praying and eating together matter in this kingdom work. we do it because that's what Jesus did when He was on earth, and if He did it, so will we.
please please pray for our neighbors to see that He is worth following too. pray for an awakening here.
::jenn::
