Life is all about give and take. As I grow older I realize that everything and anyone you encounter comes with good parts and bad. Learning to live a life where you embrace the good and deal with the bad allows you to find contentment in your location or in who you surround yourself with. Life is far from perfect and living in Chicago I have traded many of the comforts in Portland for a much busier way of life. This is not necessarily a good or a bad thing, rather it’s a matter of the perspective you take. Where you are is only a location, but the way you handle it is what really shows who you are and what your made of.
Being in this new place I have traded a yard, free parking spots, smooth moving traffic and the my safe small hometown for concrete, parallel parking (Which come with massive parking tickets if done wrong), traffic like I’ve never seen, and a city filled with people from all over the world. The diversity, loud noises, and fast paced society I am now emerged in are so foreign to my norm of growing up. I am starting to realize the value of money, the hardships that come along with living independently and how incredibly sheltered I had been living in my secluded suburbia home. I gave up some of the things I love to be in a place with more opportunities, restaurants on every corner, eclectic downtown life, and a bright urban skyline that lights up the night beautifully.
I am living in the third largest city in the United States and although I would rather not be here forever I have to settle in and put down roots. If I don’t, I fear that I will always be living for what will happen in the future and not whats happening right here and now. I am happy and content for the first time in where God has me in this chapter of my life. I know that for some crazy reason I am meant to be here and I will be open to what my purpose is while I embrace this new time in my life. I heard a sermon on how important it is to know your purpose for living in a city. In the bible in mentions the importance people have in a large city. Over 51% of our world lives in the urban communities and that number continues to grow. If we could bring about change and reformation our society would be dramatically changed. If you start to enact a change in the places that set trends, house the most people and are culturally diverse and secular other places will follow the lead. Among the chaos of this place you can’t help but notice the beautifully different people that live here. Each person has a story to tell and God deeply loves and wants to bring them into a place of peace and show his love to them. I want to love God by loving his people, he has placed me in a place where I get to do that.
Each day I find something I could resent about Chicago and wish I were back home where I knew what to expect. Although I miss my home I am choosing to embrace the differences of this new place and learn to love them at the same time. Learning to do this with my location will help me in all areas. Embracing the differences with others and learning to work with them can create amazing harmony if done with love. I want to do the same thing in this town.
Recognizing all the amazing advantages I have here will keep my mind focused on putting down roots and being okay with where God directs my paths. He seems to have me learning some very important lessons lately. I am finally understanding the value of being frugal with money, parking responsibly, loving people deeper and knowing its okay to have weaknesses. This won’t last forever; nothing ever does so in the time being I want to live for the moment, I want to live in my city.
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