I’m still working out what this blog is and where it is going.  I think that sometimes I might write a whole stream of thoughts.  At other times it may just be a few sentences.  We will have to see how it goes.

Last week I was away with work, deep in the middle of America’s heartland.  As I sat on the plane I snapped the photo above and on one of the nights we stayed in the hotel pictured below.  In both places I thought “this is the middle of nowhere”.  It is easy to have thoughts like this when you live in a city but the more I reflected on on my own thoughts the more uncomfortable I became.

At the very heart of my faith is a passion for outward signs of our ministry in the world.  Actually to be more specific outward actions that come out of Christ’s love in the world.  Living out that passion requires that I constantly take a step back and look afresh at each and every situation, no matter how uncomfortable the view may be.  With that in mind my thoughts spun on their heels.

In a week, where many of us celebrated the repealing of DOMA and the SCOTUS ruling on Prop 8, we may not see the room for compassion and understanding in those people who were hurt by these two landmark human right cases.  But we must.  We must find ways to stand together in Christ.  If we don’t then we risk the chance of replacing one person who feels as if they are in the middle of nowhere with another person who has exactly the same feelings.

We may not, and we should not, aim to make every place on earth like a city.  But we should aim to make every place on earth feel like a loving home, a home where all God’s children are welcome.