Today, I walked with a family from Grace United Methodist Church North to 17th St. NW, West  on 17th, and then back to the church via Madison Ave and 14th St. NW.  This was a sobering walk, as along with the houses and yards there were quite a few stories.  Families broken by tragedy and homes lost in bankruptcy.  Addictions, prison, illness, crimes of anger and cycles of destruction.  We stopped more than once to pray for families and homes.  We stopped and asked for God to be known here.

Sometimes, compassion wars with judgement in my mind.  On the one hand, I hurt for the anger, despair, misunderstanding and straight-up lack of ability that lead us to so recklessly hurt ourselves and each other.  On the other hand, as one of my walking partners said, so many of these hurts are self-induced.  Given resources, caring people, and opportunities, we still insist on making bad choices that lead to ugly realities.
And this isn't the only neighborhood where these things are true.  When you look at the crime reports for Mason City, there are not concentrations in one neighborhood or another.  Instead, the hurt and brokenness are everywhere.

I don't mean to dwell on the bad here in town.  I love Mason City.  People here are easygoing and even when things are tough, they insist on having a positive outlook.  This is Iowa, after all, and mostly, it really is a lot like Heaven.  What struck me in this walk is how, by praying, we start to see people and to realize the very deep hurts that live here.   There is a hunger inside for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to ignite something in us that will help us combat the despair-to reach into these lives and to break out of our own so that healing, wholeness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness and self-control can be the stories we get to tell one another.  May it be so.  



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