Sacrifice

Kyle here. Becca's in the kitchen/bathroom cooking dinner, so I thought that I would write. Our experience in New Orleans has been interesting, to say the least. God has already been teaching me so many different things. After a long couple of days of loading furniture onto a uhaul truck, driving 6+ hours, and unloading most of it into a 10X6.5X9 unit (trust me, it's not that big), we ventured to Metairie (reminds me of what it would be like if Hoover, AL and Buckhead, GA got married and had kids...of course, you will have to excuse the absurd personification) with my family to grab some much-deserved dinner. As we said goodbye to my family and began to make the trek back to our hotel room, I couldn't help but feel a certain degree of uneasiness. Becca and I come from a very upscale area in the state of Alabama. And as a certain best friend of mine reminds me from time to time, where we lived in Birmingham is only as old as we are. That's 24 years, which is not a lot in city years. So, everything is new and state-of-the-art and rather spacious. And a lot of rich people live there...even if they don't think they are.

It couldn't be more different in New Orleans. We live in an area where, less than a block away, there is a shopping center that has been abandoned since Hurricane Katrina hit in Aug. '05. Just go a few more blocks, and you will see the abandoned Wal-mart, which happens to be one of the first sites you see as you head down I-10 into New Orleans. In fact, the closest Super Center seems somewhat out of place. Getting to it requires driving through what reminds me of the urban version of a ghost town (my guess is it has been this way for about three years) or an urban desert that all of a sudden gives way to a mirage-like giant of a grocery/retail store. And yes, it even has palm trees. Needless to say, we are in the heart of the city. In fact, it's not just any city. It's New Orleans, which as I have been reminded within the past month, has a certain dark reputation coupled with its hurricane devastated past.

I write all of this to preface one idea that, at that very moment in the car on the way back from Applebee's, God began to use in order to radically change our mindsets toward lifestyle ministry. In all of the prayer and thought that went into deciding to come to New Orleans, I never once was intimidated. On this night, I was both intimidated and, truth-be-told, scared for the very first time. It was out of this fear that we both starting taking notice of the huge sacrifice that we were making. And as I have been careful to describe to you, the assumption that is often made (us included) is that our area of Birmingham is a ton better than our new home. We thought to ourselves, "Of course it's a huge sacrifice to give up living and working in that upper middle class area where our families are just down the road along with the huge subdivisions, high quality schools, and 1,000+ member churches that have flourishing student ministries." And then it hit us. As I thought about how different suburban Birmingham is, I thought about how it has to be in the top 1% of nicest areas to live in in the world. In other words, it's the exception, not the norm. And then I thought about the many followers across the world that are giving up their lives and their families (forced separation) to advance the gospel. Some spend years in prison, pastor churches whose buildings are burnt down regularly, or watch as their spouse is killed right before their eyes. That is sacrifice. Giving up living in the top 1% of the world pales in comparison, even if it is where my family lives.

I want to be clear. I am not bashing the place that served as my home for the past 1o years, nor my family who currently lives there. After all, it's located in the most unchurched county in Alabama, and they need Jesus just as much as poor people do. I am merely saying that in the grand scheme of things, our "sacrifice" is small, including living 5 hours away from our friends and families. And we are glad to make it. We love New Orleans. Every bit of it. And we are excited about what God has for us to do here.

Matthew 10:37-40
"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. "