Small Town Livin

I love rainy nights. They put me in a great introspective mood. There might not be anything better than reading while listening to some mellow music and the rain and wind. I feel close to God in these moments, even if i'm listening to Radiohead and reading Kierkegaard.

So Jodi and i have been in Kent City for almost a week and half now. I haven't been to Kent City, my home town, in three years and i have to admit that it is a bit of a culture shock to the system. I think growing up I never realized just how much of a hick i was. My hometown is so small, and the church i grew up in is filled with blue-collar people, good people but people that are very different than the people i live with now. There probably couldn't be a more different place to live than Portland and now Seattle. Now that i think about it I don't think there could be anything more opposite than for a kid from small town Michigan to be working at a black church in Seattle.

I'm so thankful for my hometown. I have great memories of it and the people in it truly loved and cared for me. There is real community in a small town. People who take care of each other. It has been good to catch up on people who I grew up with and to find out where everyone is and what they are doing. I miss having the kind of closeness that people have in a small town and a small church.

Its good to be home and feel like I fit. All around are people who look like me, talk like me, and think like me. I understand why people never leave their small town. However, I don't think i could go back, at least at this time in my life. I like that people disagree with me. I like that people disagree with me even at church. I think it makes me sharp and it makes me think. I think if i lived in the same place my whole life i would go crazy from boredom.

Small town livin is good, but at least for right now its not for me. I am excited to be working with students at UW and working with a church seeking to bring Christ to people from all tribes and nations. I'm excited to be be working on a campus that is 40 times bigger than my hometown.