CAPS COMING OFF

I really cannot believe that I have only lived in Chicago for eight weeks, it feels so much longer.  I absolutely hate talking about how long we have been here because inevitably the fact that we only have two weeks left comes up.  Usually when someone starts talking about leaving soon, I will immediately change the subject.  Because in all honesty, the thought of leaving project hurts me to think about!  I know I still have two weeks to post a final blog, but really I do not have the best track record for posting blogs regularly, so I'm just going get a farewell point out there and hopefully write a final one before leaving.  I can only imagine what these last two weeks are going to back like.  The first two weeks were some of the best weeks, these last two are going to be a blast I am sure.


Even though since living in Chicago I have come to the conclusion that I have absolutely no interest to live in the city limits of any major city for longer than a year, I have come to love this city. I look at the people I work with and I have begun to love them and who the city has shaped them to be.  When on the UIC campus, I love to meet new college students and engage them and tell about the One who has given me the love that I have for them.  I keep going to our church Willow Chicago, and though it is a completely different church then I am used to or even completely comfortable with, I have begun to love the people there and the mission that they have to unite all the diverse people of Chicago in the Kingdom of God.


Like I just said,  when first attending Willow Chicago I did not care for it at all.  But, with much prayer and God slowly teaching me about grace and the love that He gives towards others, I have learned that I will never be in a position where I know too much and cannot be taught by someone else.  Willow's love for their community and outreach has revealed my lack of outreach to the people around me.  I tend to pour into just the people around me, the people in my seemingly Christian community, but in reality I am called to go OUT and just share what He has done for me.

This past Sunday at church was most definitely the best sermon at Willow.  Again, I will say it was a good church service.  We watched a guest speaker who preaches at a church in Detroit.  He spoke on the fact that unrighteous people can never work up to God, but people made righteous by God, out-pour His righteousness to those around them through gratitude to the Father in the form of good works.  His story was that in his "black church", church is cultural, it is the way a family lives.  Church is incorporated into their lives.  But, his question was then why do their neighborhoods (Detroit) suffer from some of the highest crime rates.  (Detroit's police stations are all closed at night because of how dangerous the city is.)  It is crazy how his analogy ties in so well with the name of my blog.  He said that so many churches, and Christians, put a cap on our salt shaker.  We keep the goodness of God and His gospel in our churches, in our hearts and forget to show God gratitude and OUT pour His righteousness to those around us.


This has challenged me to take the lid off of my mouth and openly outpour.  I don't feel equipped to take on such a heavy role but I am part of His body and He has made me with a purpose! "Little is made much in the hands of God."