"Why the City?"

Why the city?

Not because it is trendy. I have never been accused of being trendy. I couldn’t be if I tried. Living in the city is a badge of honor for some because they feel like they are on the razor’s edge of changing culture. It is better to be on the rising of the tsunami rather than be one one watching it barreling your direction.

The picture is big to squash the paragraphs. Creates tension. Its "city reading."

Being part of the city can’t be my identity.

It isn’t because it is comfortable. Being in such close proximity to people all of the time is not anything that I thought I would ever choose to do. I like my space. I want people to get out of my way. No, we definitely don’t seek comfort or convenience in the city. Give me wide open spaces where people cannot see how goofy I can be around them. When you are close to others (in every way) its SO much easier to see imperfections. It is much simpler to not have to live with all of the brokenness of people around me as a constant reminder of my own.

A large reason of why we want to live in and love the people of the city is found in what Steven Um and Justin Blizzard write in their book “Why Cities Matter”:

“Cities are built upon the things from which humanity attempts to derive its ultimate significance. Whether centered around a mosque or a financial district, a cathedral or an entertainment sector, all cities are built in honor of and pay homage to some type of a 'god’…Its not if you’re worshipping; its what you’re worshipping. In the same way, it’s not a question of whether cities are centers of worship-cities have always been built around things that their inhabitants see as holding cosmic significance- it’s a question of what a city is worshipping.” (pg 32)

All people are worshippers. When we get together no matter how hard we try to hide it we will worship together. It may be trying to one up each other on an accomplishment at school or a promotion at work. It may be driving slowly down the obnoxious neighbor’s street in order for them to turn green with envy over your bright, new (red) sports car. It may be a humble gathering of those who treasure Jesus. One way or another, we are worshipping right now.

Our city will take on the character of what we worship. If it is the ancient God Mammon, we will erect statutes of the Dollar Almighty. If it is the Eternal God, we won’t waste time with statutes to depict His image, but the character of our lives will overflow his image in ways we don’t even know (and could never fully plan for).

We live in the city and love the city because people are in the city. Myraids of worshippers who ascribe meaning to myraids of lesser treasures. We live in the city so that our little image will reflect Jesus’ greater image in order that people will treasure that Image.

I just wish we still had a big backyard.

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. (Acts 17:16-17 ESV)

My Moment of Pagan Worship

We spent the afternoon outside of Moab, Utah at Arches National Park. The short story is that there is way too much to see in the park and around Moab for one afternoon. ​Way. Too. Much. I kept telling my wife how much I wish I was bigger to be able to understand all of the beauty we got to see. God forbid that we ever get bored with the glory reflected in creation!

I wonder if we will have the "bigness" to understand God's beauty in things like Arches National Park in the new heavens and the new earth. 

There was something else that rose up in me too: covetousness. I don't like that word because I'm not exactly sure what it fully means or how to say it. (covet-chus-ness?)

On the trail to the "Delicate Arch" in the Park, I was overwhelmed with a desire to have the means to buy stuff to play like this all of the time. We hiked along the same path with people who bought expensive stuff to go exploring with their family. I longed for that too. I longed for it too much. I longed for lesser things (like a high end hiking backpack to carry my daughter) in a weak moment.

At that moment, I tasted how easy it would be for me to treasure the things of the world at the expense of the Creator of those things. Being outside, playing in God's world seems to breathe new life into me, but it can also be the path to pagan idolatry. Subtly exchanging the treasure of the Beauty of Christ in his creation for a (falsely) beautiful Lesser thing. (See Romans 1:24-25 for more on that)

So, for a few moments I was a pagan today. Or at least I felt like one. 

I often try to force out this type of sinfulness by doubling up my resolve against it. That doesn't work. It never has, but I will foolishly keep trying, I'm sure.

What does "work" is something only the Spirit can do: give us a deeper, broader love for something (ahem, "someone") more beautiful. I long for the day when we get to play on earth as we were meant to, but with no desire to worship creation.  Those will be days when we will be "big" enough to see and grasp the Source of all Beauty as he plays alongside us in his Creation.

There, by the Delicate Arch and thousands of other breathtaking places, we will love him for the beauty he created and for the scars that remind us of the beauty of his heart.

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." C.S. Lewis

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." (Colossians 3:1-2 ESV)