God is always up to something. 

That’s not really a secret – the Bible spells that out for us. God is up to nothing less than an all-encompassing reconciliation project (Col. 1:20), and this reconciliation project, which is cosmic in its scale, has also been put in our hands to be worked out in the midst of our relationships (2 Cor. 5:18). 

This is no less true in your neighborhood. As you go about your ordinary business of taking trash cans to the curb, unloading sweating gallons of milk under the sweltering Texas sun, or walking the dog, God is busy and at work, and has invited you into joining his work as his ambassador, a fully sanctioned representative of the Kingdom of God, right where you are.  

Can you hear God’s call into this work? Are you available to say yes to it? Can you enter into conversations with your neighbors with an ear towards the ways that God’s cosmic reconciliation project is working itself out in your cul-de-sac or apartment parking lot? 

Theologians and church planters David Fitch and Gino Curcuruto write: 

As we enter a place, as we sit and listen to a person, we pray ‘Lord be present in this place,’ ‘Lord, help me to be present to your presence in this place, this person.’ We give up any reliance on something other than Jesus. We acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is proactively present to prompt and lead people to himself. Let us be present, submitting to Jesus, discerning His presence at work among us. 

Gino Curcuruto & David Fitch, Presence Based Witness 

In your interactions with your neighbors, keep an ear open for what God is up to.