Preparing Our Hearts for Easter: Day 30. The challenge of slum living

An article by Frank    No Comments

In the lead up to Easter we will be putting up a new lent devotion each week day. These devotions will also be available in the discussions section of our Facebook page and will be played on New Zealand’s Rhema.

During the very short amount of time I have spent visiting urban slums in two developing countries there is something that has stood out to me – their social interaction… not the online sort, but the very human face to face sort.

Slum dwellings are most often very small, confined spaces housing large families and groups of people. They are generally not suitable for extensive living. They cover the basics – providing a place to sleep in, store a family’s meager possessions, cook in and shelter in when necessary.

Contrast this to the average New Zealand home, even our smaller ones are spacious in comparison – they are dwellings that we live in and spend extensive amounts of time in. In a sense they act as cocoons to the world around us – the world outside our doors, walls and windows. They are our castles.

In urban slums, because of the nature of the dwellings many people naturally spend most of their time outside of their home, in the streets, interacting and talking. The social interactions are vast and numerous – children engage with multiple families. They have to.

Of course, slums are not havens of paradise, they have their hardships and struggles beyond what many of us can comprehend, but there is a lesson in their social engagement for us. Let’s get out of our cocoons, our havens of safety. Let’s live outside in the communities around us, building relationships, serving, listening.

Let’s learn this lesson from the social life of urban slums. Just as Jesus came and dwelt among us, may we also move out of our bunkers and dwell amongst those around us. Join groups, invite others to your home, enter the homes of others, meet your neighbours, talk to people in the street, be a light in your community.

Pray

Jesus, give us the courage to step beyond our castles and to actively engage the communities around us.

Amen