I think God gave me New York and all its hard, unanswerable questions so I would finally begin to face the reality of a messy world, a cursed world, a groaning world. There is no magic spell, no secret wisdom that will solve the problem of pain, of haves and have-nots. God gave me New York so I would understand how dark and deep sin lies within the walls of this city and within my own heart. He gave me New York to give me a holy discontentment with this world and a longing for my true home.
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Would You Stay?
I’ve written more than once about place in the last year―the difficulty of saying goodbye to friends who live far away, the ache of homesickness, the comfort of God’s plan for the church. In each of these, the common thread is the presence or absence of people. Place is important because people exist in only one place at a time. But place is also ultimately unimportant because it is not the space itself, but the people who occupy that space, that I miss.
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