Around the Town

Mom and I went shopping yesterday. Even though I'd only been gone for a period of months, this county is growing so fast that several times I had to ask her for directions to familiar locations. I remember when there were more cow fields in Smyrna than surburbs, and Nissan was the biggest employer. Now it's hard to find a cow, but subdivisions seems to be sprouting daily like unwanted weeds in a summer flowerbed. Even next door I'm forced to face the change. The verdant rolling hills of pasture that were my playground have now been replaced by mounds of dirt in the name of progress. Alongside the driveway that led to my grandparents' house, and the gravel track of many races of my cousins and me (Jim you always beat me), now stand a sentinel of bulldozers and other mechanical behemoths. All this construction and all this progress mean one thing: all kinds of people are moving into Smyrna including people seeking a Savior.
The leaders at church have also noted this influx, and Sunday they told us that Wednesday we'd be doing our part to minister to our new neighbors. So tomorrow night we will be loading our cars and headed out around the city to pray for her and her new inhabitants, to pray for ways to reach out to her occupants and to pray that our lights may shine. It's so wonderful to not be focusing on telling people what's wrong with Christianity, and instead, to be focusing on telling people what's right with Christ. I had never thought about praying for a city, yet Christ did that very thing. Upon a trip back to Jerusalem he saw the city and wept. I imagine that He wept for all those lost souls searching for salvation, hurting from life's burdens. I remember driving back one night from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I remember seeing the hills lit up with thousands of twinkling lights, each its own Christmas tree, but I did not weep for the city.
Maybe I should start praying for those "Jerusalems" I've encountered: for Johnson City and the thousands of students on campus seeking out the meaning of life, for Knoxville, for Smyrna, for Tegucigalpa, for Chicacao, Guatemala, and the list could go on and on.
So tomorrow night I'll be out somewhere around Smyrna praying. If you happen to live here, know that you are being prayed for. If you live somewhere else, use this as an opportunity to pray for that somewhere else. Prayer is a powerful thing and you can never do it enough.