Complex

I was in New York City recently. We stayed in the theater district in mid-town Manhattan at a conference discussing the success of the Harlem Children's Zone and the impact this organization has had in Harlem over the past two decades.

My traveling companions, along with my wife Crystal, were Dave and Kelly Kaiser. Dave has been to the city many times and for the rest of us was an excellent host. In just four days, in addition to a rather intensive conference schedule, we took a boat tour of Manhattan which included the Statue of Liberty, a bus tour that took us to Brooklyn and back to Manhattan, went to the observation deck of the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Wall Street, Times Square, Ground Zero of the World Trade Center, Battery Park, rode the famous NYC sub way, prayed with about 2,000 fellow laborers at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and oh yes, ate without shame or hesitation some NYC pizza - whatta ya gonna do?!

All cities are a complex maze, but in NYC I found this to be overwhelmingly true. It is so vast and complex a place, that all you truly can have confidence in is your ability to put one foot in front of the other and see where it takes you.

For the first time in my life and career of working and serving the human condition, I finally have an appropriate metaphor for humans.

All of us are very New York City synonymous!

For example, NYC is as deep as it is tall. The Empire State Building stands at 1250 feet while there are water main pipes that are 1000 feet below the sidewalk. There are some buildings with names in which are visited frequently and many more buildings with no names that are walked by each day without as much as a passing glance. Some buildings are dressed in bright colors attracting all to their doors and some buildings that are non-descript and uninviting.

You get the point.

Here's today's question: How does someone minister within the context of complexity?

The person in whom you will encounter today will need you to appreciate how exhaustingly complex their vertical issues are. As it is for all of us our issues are both in the 'all can see' places and especially below the surface in the 'out of sight, but not out of mind' places.

Serving one another is not too terribly complicated, but serving the human condition is extremely complex. You and I will need a one foot in front of the other approach ... step lightly will you please?

The sidewalk conversation you're involved in right now towers over you with quiet anticipation and rumbles beneath you with disquieted confusion.

Are you prepared? Are you confused over your own vertical issues? What will you do with those pesky moments you know God is going to give you today that involves another person?

Can I encourage you to receive a new dimension of the Holy Spirit? If Jesus needed it before starting His service to humans, then I can imagine a followership of His example on this one to be quite a non-negotiable.

Here is the answer to today's questions: 'Get a new dimension of the Holy Spirit's leading'. Ask Him, seriously ask ... what do you have to lose? I'll tell you the alternative to trying to keep up with the complex in you and around you all by yourself will leave you less than satisified.

In contrast, when you receive a new dimension of the Holy Spirit, you'll be empowered, those in whom you intersect will be served and God will get a chance to redeem a past and renew a future.

Dan
A Runner