I commute back and forth between DC and Baltimore for classes. As I head into our nation’s capital, I typically veer off the BW Parkway onto New York Avenue. I watch the parkway’s forests merge into the National Arboretum. Trees then become run down buildings, fast food restaurants, and gas stations. As I approach NW, construction cranes and building frames fill the sky. Passing North Capitol, I always glance left at the grand dome of the Capital rising above the row homes. I continue from New York Ave to Massachusetts past torn down housing projects, storefront churches, a revitalized Gallery Place, downtown everything, always-trendy Dupont, rows upon rows of embassies from every other nation on the globe. The National Cathedral towers over the last stretch before I reach American University and Wesley Theological Seminary.
I make this trip two to three times a week. With each trip up and down this grand tour, there are prayers to be said and scripture to reflect upon. Through the noise of the traffic I try to not only commune with God, but with the city I grew up alongside and, one day, hope to serve. I desire to bring all the elements together, fully aware of God’s presence on my internal life and the city from poverty to riches, international spaces to academic campuses.
The city is filled with people, and yet, during this weekly ritual, I am always alone. During this moving tour, I am kept aware of my surroundings in flow with traffic while simultaneously seeking to focus my mind and heart.
Turn off the radio. Listen.
What do the buildings tell you? What do the crowds reflect? Who gathers in the storefronts and the cathedrals? See how the flags of the world blow in the breeze, what are the nations saying? Remember the ragged on the streets. Consider the suits in their meetings. What does God ask of them? What does He ask of you?
Scriptures begin to trickle in…
“And he drew near and saw the city, and wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!’”
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor…”
“Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God”
“Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies-in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”
Look around you. Speak
Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.
Small, short prayers.
Lord, Have Mercy.
Lord, Grant Wisdom.
Lord, Bring Humility.
Lord, Teach Us.
These are moments along the way that are filled with intercession.
Father, bring peace and witness to the nations broken by war.
Father, empower the ministers and leadership of these churches.
Father, open the eyes of the rich and powerful to your will and agenda.
Father, fill the hungry and the poor with good things
Usually, I arrive at Wesley about an hour before class begins, near noon. It’s time for lunch. I usually sit at the picnic table behind the Wesley Bells towering above the trickling pool. As I eat slowly, The noise in my mind begins to fall away. I consider all I have seen, all I have heard, all I have asked and said. When all is said and done, this sojourn across DC is but a training ground for the heart. It is a space to enact simple disciplines to deepen my connection with the Jesus in such a way that I love and weep over the city as he did, to feel the call to service and witness. If the disciplines are a window to grace, then I must sit before them more often.
God is near, beyond me, around me, within me.
It’s not always easy, but above all that comes about in this city, I try and stop to seek the one thing that ought to matter most.
Communion with my Lord.. .
Enjoy the Lord.
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