I don't know if you remember when my amazing friend Lori Harris guest posted here during my series on listening, but she is an amazing person and of the few people who I feel like totally "gets" my life, since she is living the same way in north Carolina. She is hosting a Local IF Gathering this weekend (I'm going to one in Atlanta), and asked me to help write something around the theme of "if God is real, then ..." - little did she know what a pivotal question this was in our journey towards inner-city ministry and our lives in Atlanta. She also couldn't know that someone (not mentioning names but hint: it wasn't one of the kids) would spill milk and kill my laptop dead. But I am passionate about God who is real, so I will peck out approximately 2 words per minute on this glacially slow old iPad my dad gave us when he upgraded. I've also never guest-posted before, so leave me some love so I don't feel embarrassed, deal?
"If God is real, it changes everything. Sometimes the change comes slow, with one tiny step, with one yes to working at a summer camp we know nothing about. And sometimes it bounds wide, with moving onto a busy street corner in inner-city Atlanta. But rest assured, if God is real, then change will come. Change comes sometimes painful, always beautiful; in faltering baby steps, and in leaps and bounds. Because our goal morphs from success, to proximity to a God who is real. We open our doors and live our lives wide open. We order our pizza through three-inch-thick-bullet-proof glass, and then share slices with the guy pushing his shopping cart past our parking spot out front, because God is real and we cannot imagine Him doing otherwise. We love through the hard days of marriage, and trust in the scariest nights because God never promised us easy. Just that He is real, and that He will be with us always. . . "
Read the rest at Lori's place (also, you should definitely follow her blogs, she is the kind of writer I hope to be when I grow up)