Waking Up

“It’s like the breath before jumping in the water; the first few groggy moments of being awake; or when the light is first turned on and blinds you. There is a restlessness, a tension, a feeling of change or thrill. The stupor which once compounded the whole of one’s existence is wearing thin and wearing off.”

If I were asked to describe my city those are the words I’d use. This is a city on the verge of much greater things. A city with youngness and oldness nailed to its identity. A city with shades of its decadent past showing through in boarded up windows on Douglas Street; a city with its vibrant future showing in places like Meads Corner and The Anchor.

I’m not in any manner claiming to be prophetic or clairvoyant in any fashion, I am merely stating the plainly obvious, the Wichita I grew up with is about to be radically different.

‘Why’ you may ask, ‘Why is Wichita about to be radically different?’ I could answer with the maturing music scene or the developing art shows, but those are not the thing itself. I could point to places like Meads Corner or The Anchor but those are not the thing itself. I could even say my own church, Journey the Way, but it is not the thing itself.

In a word, Jesus; in a phrase; the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ this God-man must be dealt with and this dealing will define the future of Wichita. The verge we stand on is the verge of belief or disbelief. The water we’re jumping into is the ocean of grace. The blinding light we are seeing is the glory of God. The grogginess and stupor will soon wear away and reveal us to be fully and finally alive.

This will define us, for all of our lives this will define us. It is true that many will wonder at the credibility of this ‘Jesus’ and some will kick and scream that this is not the answer to the reason why Wichita is changing, but I would challenge any and all to delve deeply into Scripture and come up saying anything different.

How we, now, deal with Jesus will define all of tomorrow and all of forever, and Wichita will never fully recover from the wonder of the Gospel.