Hi y’all. Lately it feels like I’ve been carrying an enormous burden for Austin. There is a lot happening politically here right now–many changes in policies and city-growth strategies that I think will determine a lot of stuff. I have never felt such an overwhelming amount of urgency… not since the election in the U.S. In addition to prayers over Austin… it has also shown me how much I love the place I live. This same thing happened when I started praying over our national government. I started growing in love toward the leaders and the city and the people in it.
For instance, we have a high Mexican population here… I would say that Mexicans are about at least a third of Texas. I drove through a Mexican neighborhood last week and suddenly appreciated them in a way I never have… I felt the lord say that their asthetic was not appreciated by white culture very much… and sometimes we think it is too bling bling for us… but this really convicted me as the Lord washed over me with not only His love but His LIKE for the Mexicans and their way. For one, they are very family-centered…. and while most of America and Europe goes down in child-bearing because of abortion and also the general trends against marriage… I mean most people my age wait a really, really long time to get married. Not so in Mexican life… They are very family-focused and this is a great gift to America and to its cities because cities need healthy families before they need economic programs. Families are a symbol of God’s relationship to us… and He blesses people through them. All of my early spiritual growth happened not so much in a church but from living with two very special families and their kids… and all their extended spiritual kids.
Anyway, if you seek him on that sort of stuff, please lift up our city to Him that He would prepare the way and that our leaders would have wisdom… from which justice and righteousness flow… just got done reading that passage about wisdom in Proverbs and I was really blown away by it. The wisdom of the Father is so big and transcends time… but I want to seek it like gold!
