in June 2011, my wife, the beautiful Val and myself moved to Americaland and more specifically to an inner city area called Kensington in Philadelphia, to join an 18 month internship program with the Simple Way community which Shane Claiborne [author of one of my top three books, 'The Irresistible Revolution' and co-founder of this intentional Christian community] was part of setting up. the heart of the local focus of the Simple Way community is just trying to be good neighbors to those around us and to follow the example of Jesus Christ within Kensington and beyond. With a focus on the statement of mother Teresa of Calcutta that ‘we can do no great things. but we can do small things with great love.’
this blog, titled ‘the Simple Weigh’ is aimed at catching glimpses of the learning process that Val and i undergo as we live in and move around in and with this community of Jesus-loving people. Realising that when it comes to following Jesus and reaching out to those in need that we arrive with certain ideas and prejudices and ways of doing things and theological understandings and how many of those are being tested and as Paul writes in Thessalonians we should test all things – hold on to the good and discard any type of evil. and so a huge part of the process here is about weighing up what we have always believed and practiced, comparing it to how those we meet and interact with and learn from believe and practice and adjusting or holding firm where necessary.
and hopefully challenging you who read this blog to be very careful about holding on too tightly to the way things have always been simply because they have always been that way. why do you believe what you believe? why do you live how you live? what is your attitude towards possessions and money and the way you spend your time and your attitude towards people you interact with and your understanding and experience of church? and so on.
i encourage you to do the same. listen, think, pray, meditate… weigh up what you hear, test with Scripture and people you trust and then adapt where necessary and hold firm where right. i hope our journey here helps some way to positively affect your journey there.
