Beauty

Basilica of St. Peter and Paul is in the heart of downtown Lewiston.  It's beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been a long winter here in Lewiston.  People are getting a little edgy, a little depressed, and yes some may be a lot depressed.   A friend said tonight, (in the context of being tired and the long winter), if it's not bad enough that we've had a long winter - it's hard to find beauty in this city.   Well, that may be true.  But one needs to look for it.   They need to look through the addict who throws his needles out the window and to the guy who has devoted his life to addiction counseling.  They need to look through the trashed filled yards to the yard that is meticulously kept planted with perennials.  They need to look past the young people fighting, swearing wearing 42's when they should be sporting a 29 to the old couple that has sat on that same porch for over 50 years watching their street, their block and their city change before them.

Today is Good Friday.  Jesus walked a road that no one would have chose to free a people that only he could love.   What better way to spend this day then reflecting on all that I see on my block and all that Jesus had done for me,  for them.   Who am I to judge anyone's downfalls.  I am here to serve, learn, grow and be Jesus to someone that needs to meet him.  

On Sunday we'll be putting out over 260 Easter eggs for the kids on our block.  I hope they show up.  I'm not sure if we'll be here or not, we may be at church.  But I hope that some of these kids will feel Jesus love them even if it is taking a bite of a chocolate or placing a well meaning sticker on their parents wall.  Yes, I hope even the over developed young girl that I observed warning a very young girl away from her older boyfriend can be a child on Easter and partake in the frivolous adventure of an egg hunt.

My friend told me today that I need to start interceding for these neighbors of mine that seem to drive me crazy at times.  So I thought you may like to join in......
Please keep in prayer the young couple who just had a baby and also have  a toddler.  He yells a lot and she is quiet.  Pray for the drug dealer,  the disabled couple, the alcoholic, the new couple with the new baby that just moved in - that they won't get caught up in the drama.... these are just some of those we are here to serve and never would have thought of a year ago.  It is for them that Jesus walked that road of agony.