How to Bring Peace to Your City

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

Though I’ve lived in Grand Rapids my whole life, I’m in the process of moving for the fifth time in three years. This time though, it’s different, because I’ve bought a place and plan to live there for the foreseeable future. I’m excited, certainly, but there’s a bit of trepidation--I’ve never lived by myself like this, I don’t know anyone who lives in the neighborhood, and I’m wondering how long, and exactly what it will take, for it to really feel like home. 

Photo Credit: Flickr User justinrazmus, Creative Commons

My current housing transition made me listen to the story of God’s people as found in Jeremiah 29 in a different way. They’re living as exiles in Bablyon, having been ripped away from their home city of Jerusalem. If I were in their situation, I don’t think I would receive God’s words to them in Jeremiah 29:7 with a very positive attitude:

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Here the people are, living where they absolutely do not want to be, and God tells them to settle in, put down roots, and invest in their community. What? It seems like the type of situation to be simply endured, not one to be embraced. But God tells them to do just that. He allowed them to be taken into exile, and he had work for them to do during that time.

Our situations may not be the same as the exiles living in Babylon, but God’s words to them hold truth for us wherever we are and whatever our circumstances are. There’s a line in the Mumford and Sons song “Hopeless Wanderer” that seems so fitting--“I will learn to love the skies I’m under.” God has us where we are for a reason, and whether we like that place or not, we have a mission: To love where we are and to seek its good.

Seeking peace and prosperity for an entire city is, perhaps, a daunting task. So I love that God’s tasks for the people, as outlined in Jeremiah 29:5-6, don’t necessarily call for crazy, outlandish things. 

Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.

God doesn’t tell them to immediately start out and take the city by storm with all their good deeds. First, he gives them specific examples of actions they can take to seek the peace and prosperity of the city. Some of us may be called to start seeking peace for our city in big, bold ways--by partnering with or starting a food pantry or ministry for homeless people, or running for city council--and others may be called to start in smaller ways. We can start where we are, by looking for the needs of others that we come across every day. 

Cities do need big movements, too. We need people who will stand up for injustice in bold ways. We need people who volunteer their time and give prayer and financial support to organizations who are helping to bring about good in our community. We need people who invest in the lives of the people around them and work as God’s ambassadors to bring healing, whether it’s physical, emotional, or spiritual. 

For me, I’m hoping to start by meeting my next door neighbors, and then others from there. While I consider myself a friendly and outgoing person, walking up to strangers and saying hello isn’t something I’m totally comfortable with, but I’m going to try. Will learning my neighbor’s name change the city of Grand Rapids? Of course not, not on its own. But big changes find their starting place in the little things. One person meeting their neighbor might not change a city, but what about a hundred people meeting their neighbors? And then taking the next step of really getting to know their neighbors? And then brainstorming, with their neighbors, of the ways they can create positive change on their street, or the next street over? What effect might that have on the city of Grand Rapids?

How can you start this week?

[Brianna DeWitt believes in Jesus, surrounding yourself with good people, and that desserts are best when they involve chocolate and peanut butter. She writes about faith, growing up, and whatever else pops into her head on her own blog, and tweets (largely about food) at @bwitt722.]