I’ve lived the suburban life in Indianapolis, and the slightly rural life of West Texas. Now Katrina and I are living in one of the biggest global cities in the world. Here are a few things that we love from our first weeks of living the big city life:

Getting to know our neighbors - within the first week of our living here, I had met not only ALL our neighbors in our building, but also the neighbors in homes and apartments all around our building, the clay guild down the street, members of a church nearby, and most of the coffee shops and businesses on the block. It wasn’t some conspiracy of mine to meet every neighbor on the street - I just kept bumping into people walking to and from work, the beach, or the grocery store. Its just the culture here, you get to know your neighbors.

Spending a little more for groceries - I know, something strange to enjoy, for sure. But if you factor in that we don’t drive to the grocery store or out to eat out or basically anywhere else, we end up saving hundreds NOT driving to the grocery store and restaurants with a local farmer’s market, 3 nearby grocery stores, shops/etc - we’ll pay a few cents more for bell peppers.

Block Parties - there are more celebrations and festivals than any one person could possibly attend. In a city that prides itself on working hard and playing hard, we’ve been invited to our neighbor’s backyard block party, and an art fair.
Public Transportation - You can get ANYWHERE with a mature public transportation system. And we do! It does take a little more time, but its clean, fast(er than a traffic jam) and stress free (no gripping the steering wheel)!

Diversity - I’ve never heard so many languages spoken on the street anywhere else in my whole life. The other day I had an hour long conversation with my Babylonian banker! I’m doing my best to learn bits of Spanish, and I’m experiencing more lifestyles and worldviews than ever before. I’ve fully enjoyed learning in the alcoves of academia in the middle of the desert, and I’m thankful for the person it helped shape me to be. I’m also super pumped about entering a diverse culture and sharing what I know/who I’ve become as well as learning/changing as I interact in the world’s gathering place.

There’s more - like reducing our carbon footprint, the Cubs-Sox inter league series, great radio, live bands, free events, beaches, parks, ministry opportunities…

Here are just a few random pictures taken from my cell phone during our first few weeks in Chicago:

Try finding this combination in the South!

Go ahead, just ask this guy about his views on politics…

Last week, I took a bike ride on the Lakefront Trail from our place down by the beach, to the loop and back.  It was long but well worth it!

Always-fun Navy Pier and my half way point on the bike adventure.

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day; for most the first chance to fire up the grill after December snows. For others, a chance to stand up to current injustices and pronounce a new Kingdom economy in the United States of America.

In Abilene, there is a large bridge that crosses HWY 80 over a large, undeveloped, wooded lot. Nearby there is an abandoned energy plant with busted windows, teetering smoke stacks, and weed-smothered fences. I know that about 350 homeless frequent this “Hobo Jungle” as the locals call it. Many of its inhabitants are children. A little village of the mentally ill, socially discarded, and abused live right underneath and around one of the busiest bridges in the city.

This bridge has two names:
1. The Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge
2. The “Singing Bridge”

Why the “Singing Bridge”? It got this nickname because of the rivets in the street to help drain the rainwater off the bridge. These rivets, as tires drive over them, create a “hum” that sounds eerily like a choir of human voices singing.

What in all of this might God be saying to his people in Abilene? What obvious (or unfortunately, not so obvious) connection might there be in these circumstances?

MLK was a saint - “an incarnated capsule of the Kingdom” that I talk about in this post - I imagine his cries for freedom and justice and equality in this land, and I mourn. I see such devastating prejudice, such insurmountable inequality, and I wonder if MLK failed completely. I wonder if anyone can see or is willing to do anything about the irony of the situation on HWY 80’s “Singing Bridge”.

On Martin Luther King Day, how will we spend it? I know that every year there is a small parade that march across the MLK bridge. Maybe I’ll go this year. Only maybe I won’t just walk over the top of the bridge, but head down underneath it - and meet someone new…maybe Martin Luther King himself.

We live in the “church district.”  Meaning right downtown, and all the huge downtown church buildings that loom all around.  There are lots of nice people that show up on Sundays and throughout the week, but every fifteen minutes - ALL week long - I hear the bells of the two largest churches giving me the correct time.  Only the churches are about 20 seconds off sync.  Which is the correct time?  Do I have to be a Methodist to set my watch by one time, and Baptist if by the other?  Every day at 5pm, these churches begin playing hymns…but because they play through each other, you can’t understand anything, and the tune sounds awful.

Are they competing?  What’s the deal?

I like to set my watch to another resounding vibration echoing through the downtown Abilene streets.

Near our apartment is a half-way house that really takes up a whole city block.   Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon at 3:45pm the recovering addicts rally together and with one voice they scream at the top of their lungs, “FREEDOM!….FREEDOM!”

Let me tell you - there is little that can do more for a heart like mine that is so bent on seeing personal transformation in others than hearing this cry for freedom throughout the week.  I am certain that the chanting will change my life, just like it is changing theirs.

Today I caught myself quietly chanting along and finding deep peace in my heart.

So maybe I’m the delinquent here. Has EVERYONE else already heard of Meetup.com? It is the neatest new discovery on my travels through the web. In case the one other person on this planet who hasn’t heard of this nifty service just so happens to find this post, let me fill you in on what its all about.

Let’s say you’re new to the area, and you want to meet some people - but the people you work with are all losers or snobs, and you aren’t sure how you managed to have so time to be in clubs/ activities way back in your High School days. Enter Meetup. You have an interest in pugs, or antiquated lawn gnomes, and you search for these topics locally. Meetup hooks you up with those in your area also interested in your strange hobbies and let’s you join in on their events! Before long, you’re standing in a sea of old lawn gnomes and new friends.

I’ve already used this tool as a way to find others who are interested in sustainable architecture and farmer’s markets in my area. Tons of fun!

Check out this video below:

Wouldn’t this be a neat way to naturally and relationally connect with other Christians in your area who are searching out God down similar pathways? Those in more organic-styled church networks are finding it difficult to coordinate times for everyone to get together, but this opens the door, AND it communicates to others in your area about your gatherings. I like this because it allows just about anyone in the Meetup group to organize an event, and let everyone else know about it. It takes the attention off the “leaders” pulling off all the events, and allows Joe to invite everyone over for burgers or Lucy to call all the women to pray over her new-born child.

Are there some down sides to this? Maybe. Should we be so concerned with meeting people who have similar interests? Is it really SO hard to find friends these days that we look people up on the internet to check them out before meeting with them? What ever happened to baking cookies and knocking on our neighbor’s door?

Any other thoughts?