Loving Your City

Growing up in the city of Glendale, a small Oregon logging community of about 800 people, I heard the phrase, "I can't wait to get out of this town," more than just a few times. It is a city that has a single supermarket, two mills and zero stoplights (unless you count the blinking red one at the intersection just off the off-ramp...if you do, you may count it as half a stoplight).

Glendale has never been a popular destination, just like the city I currently live in: Klamath Falls. Klamath is located in a high desert area of southern Oregon — only about 25 miles from the California border. This city boasts around 40,000 people, two collegiate schools (Oregon Tech and Klamath Community College), a movie theatre (!), potatoes, cows and snow and ice from November to the end of May...or June.

The attitude of many youth, college students and adults who live in Klamath Falls is, "All I want to do is leave." And who could blame them, especially after reading how I described them?

Maybe you live in a city like this, or, maybe you live in a big city like a Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles or Las Vegas and you find yourself stuck in traffic, always wishing that you could get out forever.

No matter what city you find yourself living in today, I want to encourage you to love your city.

Why?

1. It's not as bad as you think.

There are always ways to have fun in whatever city you're in. Truth be told, I have loved living in Glendale and Klamath Falls — even though neither city has many of the amenities that larger cities have to offer, it's easy to find a way yourselves. It's just that some places require more creativity than others.

2. It's not about "what your city has to offer," it's about the people.

This is summed up by Jesus in Luke 10:27b, when he states, "Love your neighbor as yourself." When I say "love your city" I'm not talking about the buildings, lakes, or restaurants. I'm talking about the people. After all, God didn't command us to love a specific climate or a triple-decker mall, but he did command us to love people.

3. Jesus did it.

If there was ever a man who had every right to say, "I want to get out of here," It would have been Jesus. He left Heaven, a place of perfection, to come live in a place of deceit, murder, pain, suffering and sin so that we could live our lives in freedom. Could you imagine Jesus coming and living a life that consisted of trying to kill time until He could move on? Instead, He chose to stay to give us grace and love. Jesus did eventually ascend to Heaven, just like most of us will not always remain in the same city, but the world He lived in has never been the same. Love your city, and I promise, it'll never be the same.

Don't live a life always wishing you were somewhere else. Live a life confident that you're with God.