The Lure of the City

I'm about to move from San Francisco to Anaheim and I feel like it's an internal repeat of the 2002 World Series. It's funny, you talk to folks around here and they'd say there's no contest. SF has it all - world class city, diversity, efficient (?!) mass transit, traditional neighborhoods, new urbanism (http://www.missionbaysf.com/), the Bay, the Arts, and so much more. But, there is another crowd who would think more highly of option two. Believe me, some of them thought I was a little loosed-bolted for moving my family here nearly five years ago. Both crowds are okay with me, though. I like to hangout in every form of human settlement and hear the perspectives of the natives on all sides.

The Anaheim side of things and really So. Cal. are so personal to me. So many of my life-long friends and family live there. But, SF has become my adopted town. I moved here with a sense of calling and commitment. One of the things that really drew me to SF was that it's not a city with many Christians. That might sound funny coming from a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, but check this out: Christians tend to be strongest in number in places that aren't urban centers. That reality has intrigued me for a while. Why is it that my people don't like cities? What does it say about us that we tend to be a rural and suburban cliche'? What going on when the world is becoming more urban and U.S. Christians are hanging in the burbs? I've wrestled with this for a while - the last 12 years. A few years into it I stopped chewing on it from afar and moved my family to SF. And I've had a hypothesis at the center of my heart the whole time. It was really pretty simple: I believed that families could live and thrive in the city; that well adjusted children could be raised in an urban environment; and that Christians could do well in the city. So I went to a city that many Christians would call "The Devil's Doorstep."

Can I back up and tell you a little about my life? My story goes something like this. I was born in Long Beach, CA. - an urban enclave some 10 miles south of L.A. I was raised by a single mom who recognized that the neighborhood wasn't going to be the greatest place to raise her little ninos. So off to Buena Park we went, that's "the good ol' park." I remember the day an "African-American" family moved onto the block. Oh, were the neighbors talking. The difference from Long Beach to Buena Park was only 12 miles but it might as well have been around the world. Much of O.C. hasn't changed yet. Check out the demography at http://www.city-data.com/ But, that's another story.

As an adult I often drove back to the neighborhood where I grew up. The streets were small. The houses were smaller. And you might be a little apprehensive to get out of your car because of the a'hem young men walking about. But, something about that street and the city called out to me. I kept returning. Then, I ventured into that massive monument to un-civilization, Los Angeles. My friends and I hauled our guitars onto Sunset Boulevard as soon as the ink was dry on our Kennedy High School (La Palma- tree city, USA. http://www.cityoflapalma.org/info/info.htm) diplomas. We played L.A.'s most popular rock clubs - The Whiskey A-Go-Go, The Roxy, and Gazarri's on the Strip. There was an excitement to the L.A. club scene of the late 80's that should never have happened - the big hair, the tight leather pants, the make-up. And that was before the girls showed up! I keep those pictures under lock and key. But, still in those years I was introduced to L.A. in all it's glitz, excess, poverty, and grit. And I was drawn in more every visit.

When I decided to hang up my guitar for a Bible I thought is was for good, so I also chopped the lockes. I used to think it was a choice between the two: you know, life on earth or life in heaven. I didn't fully realize that being a student of Jesus and living in God's story didn't mean I had to toss out my CD's and turn down my guitar. It really meant a change in direction. It was a reorienting of my life from centered in my own wants, needs, desires to the way of Jesus. Now, I was fully free to live a life oriented to the mysterious Creator of all things. And that is the change that also affirmed my posture toward things urban. You see, I began to see the city, not as a place of evil, but as a place incomplete. So I asked "Why shouldn't followers of Jesus live in the city?" I quickly realized God's people are meant to influence for good in all things, in all places, and at all times. I'm learning more with age that the barriers we mere humans create between things material and things spiritual are from our own imaginings. From the Creator's view there is no separation between the life I live and the faith I hold - it's all part of life with God. In the same way, one could say cities are not inherently evil. Cities are works in progress that invite a plethara of peoples, tribes, languages, and creeds to come and shape it for the common good. And the acts we do today matter! What is done by me in pursuit of God and His Kingdom will inevitably have an inpact on others and on this dusty little planet. Yet, just as no family is perfect, no city is perfect. All are being shaped. And amazingly, God is at work in all cities, in all places, and even in all people. Be on the look out! You might run into the unexpected and you may be invited by God to act on behalf of someone you'd rather not. Thanks for reading my words from the heart for the long haul... dl