How I Spent My Summer Vacation

2011-07-19T21:49:00.000-04:00

or "What is Sidewalks Again?"

Sidewalks is sharing a house with fifteen people.

Sidewalks is putting up with all the odd socks in the living room.

Sidewalks is learning how to dougie, juggle, and do a mean frat-snap tobacco-slap.

Sidewalks is admitting that you miss your nightly John-butt-whupping at Dutch Blitz.

Sidewalks is finishing up a four-hour budget conversation and realizing it’s two in the morning.

Sidewalks is being truthful during conflict.

Sidewalks is trusting that if you cut a person’s ear off, Jesus can put it back on.

Sidewalks puts the unity in community.

Sidewalks is teaching English to a refugee from Burma.

Sidewalks is listening to a former attorney tell you how he became homeless.

Sidewalks is getting a silly song stuck in your head.

Sidewalks is preparing a talk about sex thirty minutes after it was supposed to start.

Sidewalks is spanking the guys at CHOC at checkers.

Sidewalks is God using three white kids to minister to eleven inner-city teens.

Sidewalks puts the hip in internship.

Sidewalks is diving into life in the city.

Sidewalks is learning by heart the tune of a particularly sensitive car alarm.

Sidewalks is buying freshly fried empanadas and eating them in the cook’s kitchen.

Sidewalks is giving people dignity and respect without waiting for them to earn it.

Sidewalks is learning about racial reconciliation from a four-year-old.

Sidewalks is trusting the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Sidewalks is loving people even if they don’t fit your theology.

Sidewalks puts the Cross in culture-crossing.

Sidewalks is learning to put what’s wrong into words and trace the rottenness to its roots.

Sidewalks is noticing an eerie emptiness at the Marriot.

Sidewalks is checking into CHOC for a night of life with almost nothing.

Sidewalks is a bullet grazing the roof of our car.

Sidewalks is waking up to news of a crime scene around the corner.

Sidewalks is looking into the depths of the darkness so we stop taking the light for granted.

Sidewalks puts the amen in lament.

Sidewalks is letting God screw with your worldview.

Sidewalks is the shock of watching all your assumptions shatter on a tile floor.

Sidewalks is two days of not talking to God because He might not let you go to the mission field.

Sidewalks is questioning your motives for questioning your motives.

Sidewalks is throwing out dusty rules to make room for new life.

Sidewalks is coming to terms with the prospect of a lot of long conversations with lots of people for the rest of your life.

Sidewalks puts the quest in question.

Sidewalks is saying hi to everyone you walk past.

Sidewalks is sitting on the porch watching people play hopscotch.

Sidewalks is praying for a person you’ve just met.

Sidewalks is choose-your-own adventure.

Sidewalks is eating cake and cantalope with a sage Muslim gardener and a crew of middle schoolers.

Sidewalks is saying yes to a cold cola on a hot day.

Sidewalks puts the try in relational ministry.

Sidewalks is getting excited about having conflict.

Sidewalks is dreaming about new ways of living and following Jesus.

Sidewalks is taking inventory of what we need to be content.

Sidewalks is tuning in to our Holy Ghost imagination.

Sidewalks is building up the ancient ruins and repairing the ruined cities.

Sidewalks puts the do in Kingdom of God.

Sidewalks is learning to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

Sidewalks 2011

How I Spent My Summer Vacation