A Day in the City

A Day in the City

    So today, we were out traveling through the lovely outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. Towards the end of our journey, as we were heading back home, we drove through the Kibera slums. Being that we only drove through, what we saw was minimal to what is truly going on inside, although I saw enough to be shaken up. And yet this is the reality of the million plus that live in this slum. Kids playing, laughing, long stares, hopeless faces, people working, walking with an agenda and talking on the phone. So why did these occurrences I see daily shake me up so? Maybe it was the mounds of garbage surrounding the streets, the crowds of people sitting in a state of emotional numbness, the thought that this is their way of living. Why does it bother me so, when this is their accepted way of living, this is their life, so they make the best of it. I just couldn’t let the thoughts go, so I took them to God in prayer, knowing that this poverty is more then I could wrap my mind around. This was not a movie screen, this was not a picture, this was the life of a human being, created in the image of God, for the purpose of bringing him glory.

    So I prayed to God, Why? What is your purpose? What have you called me to do to be a part of the solution? Is there a solution? Am I to be a part of it? Is there hope? I could never make a difference… Why God? As I am committing these thoughts to the Lord in prayer, I look up and passing by is a truck that has Romans 8:28 painted right on the front of it. And we know for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Really God? Your telling me that this slum is a part of your plan, this is to work together for good. My son do you not believe my word. Do you have a better idea of the happenings of this world. Do you know when the end is to come, do you know the day or the hour. Did you create the heavens and the earth? Do you know the number of hairs on each persons head in that slum? Do you know the number of the stars in the sky, can you call them all by name? My son, do you not trust me?

    Thank you God, I do trust you. I must admit some things do not make sense to me. Please make sense of these things to me. Surely if a local Kenyan can live in this city and travel in the identity of Romans 8:28, then I must be able to believe it. So Lord what am I to do? As I read the rest of Romans 8: For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    Shall distress, or persecution, or famine separate us from the love of Christ? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Standing on this truth I am now lead back to Romans 8:26-27, Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Now I will seek God, and his Spirit is faithful to reveal to my spirit his will for my life. For I know he has a work for me to walk in an is faithful to reveal and equip me for that work.