awkwardness

This is the first of what I'm sure will be many "married" life posts.  Married life, as I had anticipated in quite an adventure.  It's fun; it's easier than dating in some ways and harder in others.

Anyway, apartment living is a new aspect of life for me.  I like it though.  It's cozy and has just what we need for this stage.  It is even better now that the smoke smell is gone.  However, dealing with multiple families around us is interesting.  A couple days ago we were witnesses of a domestic dispute.  A woman near us and her significant other really got into it.  There was a lot of yelling, and Ben and I were temporarily trapped in our apartment.  (Our's is the apartment right beside the stairs, which is where the dispute was going on, loudly.)  As annoying and awkward as that whole situation was, I felt compassion toward this woman.  The human part of me was 100% annoyed.  The compassion is solely from Christ.  I've often heard it said to be polite yet distant from your neighbors.  Common sense tells me to do that as well, and left to my own devices, it is exactly what I prefer to do.

BUT of course, The Holy Spirit will tug at you about stuff.  I feel the tug to move past simple polite smiles and courteous "How are you's?"  Those things are comfortable, and Jesus calls us to more. I'm convinced that every aspect of life is fertile ground for "mission work."  We like to put "mission work" into a nice neat category, and it is usually a category that doesn't infringe on our every day comings and goings. Therefore, I know that this apartment situation is not accidental. If I want to be a missionary in my career one day, I need to practice and be missional now. In the struggle I see around me how can I even begin to dare to hoard the hope I have found.

This is going to be awkward. I know it will be. Sometimes I think Jesus thrives on awkward.  I mean think how awkward He made the pharisees feel.  And He definitely made his disciples feel awkward...He washed their feet. That was so weird. It is so weird.  And He said walk the extra mile.  What do you even talk about for that long?!

It is time to take this step though, no matter how awkward it is.  It is time to take this bigger step because I believe in a Christ that is bigger than nice smiles and positive attitudes.  I believe in a Christ who destroys darkness, shatters chains of hopelessness, and stomps the ploys of the enemy.