Dwell and Live Among your Neighbors in your City

Allow yourself to rest within the walls of your home, and the boundaries of your city. Dwelling among your neighbors means being present with them. Walk the same streets. Breathe the same air. Live your life in your city. Live your life among your neighbors.

There is satisfaction and contentment waiting for you where you dwell. Let us trust that our God places us where we are living. See the neighbors who live closest to you as gifts from God. People to bless, pray for, and to extend kindness towards. You should try to make choices that keep us present in your city. We should work in our city. Let the regular rhythms of your life weave you into your city.

When we choose to dwell in a place, we place ourselves within the monastic tradition. Our lives do not have the walls of the monastery or a cloister. Our sense of place and home is different from this. Yet, we can embody a monastic sense of home and place as we dwell in our cities. As we live in place, we proclaim that Jesus is here with us. Our lives proclaim that God of all things is here in these streets with us. We embody the reality that God, who is love, loves this place and these people. Learn to walk, rest, and dwell in such a way that the presence of God is known and felt. Resist the temptation to run to God somewhere else. Resist the temptation to run somewhere else to live life.

All you need for your own righteousness and life with God is in your city. Among all kinds of diversity, you get to live and work. Every day and every moment is a chance for you to love as Christ does and to embody the Fruit of the Spirit. This love and this fruit are relational. They invite and guide how we relate to ourselves and to others. May our God give us the capacity to love our home, our city, ourselves, and every one of our neighbors. A satisfying and content spiritual life awaits us in the place where we dwell and live.

• What ways is where you dwell like living within a monastery?
• Pray for God to give you deeper satisfaction and contentment for the city you live in.
• What are ways God may be inviting you to love and bless your neighbors?
• Meditate to understand the impulses and feelings that make you want to escape from your city.
• Praise God for the ways that you feel rooted and present in your city.
• What are aspects of your city life that leave you unsettled and disconnected? Pray for God to help you with each one.
• Pray that God would help you see Jesus here with you.
• What ways have you seen the God of love embodied in lives around you?
• How have you learned to move, work, rest, and dwell that the presence of God is known and felt?
• What are some of the ways that your neighbors have been a gift from God in your life?