Dwell and Live Among your Neighbors in your City

We allow ourselves to rest within the walls of our homes, and the boundaries of our cities. Dwelling among our neighbors means being present with them. We walk the same streets. We breathe the same air. We live our lives in our cities, and among our neighbors.

There is satisfaction and contentment waiting for us where we 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. Bless these people, pray for them, and extend to them kindness. We should try to make choices that keep us present in our cities. We should work in our city. Let the regular rhythms of our lives weave us into our cities.

We weave the threads of our lives into the monastic tradition without walls or a cloister. Do not let this diminish the importance of place in our lives. Dwelling within this place means that we seek and find our rest here. As we live in place, we proclaim that Jesus is here with us. Our lives proclaim that the 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 some other life.

All we need for our own righteousness and life with God is in our cities. Among all kinds of diversity, we get to live and work. Every day and every moment is a chance for us 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.

• In what ways is the place where you dwell like living within a monastery?
• Pray for God to give you deeper satisfaction and contentment with the city you live in.
• Celebrate the ways you are able to dwell and rest in your home and neighborhood.
• Meditate on how dwelling among neighbors changes your understanding of simply dwelling somewhere.
• Contemplate what ways God may be inviting you to love and bless your neighbors.
• Meditate on what it means and looks like to dwell somewhere, and dwell among others.
• Meditate to understand the impulses and feelings that make you want to escape from your city.
• Grieve the ways your life takes you away from the place and people you dwell with.
• Praise God for the ways that you feel rooted and present in your city.
• Reflect on the aspects of your city life that leave you unsettled and disconnected. Pray for God to help you with each one.
• Contemplate how the way you live informs and changes how you dwell in a place.
• Pray that God would help you see Jesus here with you.
• Reflect on the ways you have seen the God of love embodied in lives around you.
• How have you learned to move, work, rest, and dwell so that you’ve noticed and felt the presence of God?
• What are some of the ways that your neighbors have been gifts from God in your life?