Love Others

We used to live in a suburban community where we would often go for long walks at night. We didn’t even need a flashlight after we memorized the two places in our neighborhood where the sidewalk suddenly dipped or rose at an odd angle. We rarely heard any sounds other than a few dogs barking or the occasional car passing. We could enjoy the breeze blowing through the trees and the scent of freshly mown lawns. It was the 2015 version of the idyllic Norman Rockwell setting.

That was only 3 years ago. Since then we moved to the Eastport Community in the City of Annapolis, Maryland. It is nestled within a peninsula that is about 1 mile long and 5 blocks wide. Eastport is a very eclectic urban community. It is more expensive to live in Eastport than in 97% of the neighborhoods in Maryland, yet we also have some of the poorest individuals living in the 2 largest public housing facilities out of the 8 properties owned and managed by the Housing Authority for the City of Annapolis.

In addition to the socioeconomic diversity, this community is very multiracial (approximately 40% white, 30% black, and 20% Hispanic). Eastport was traditionally an African-American community. It used to be primarily farmland and then become a strong blue-collar area for the maritime culture. The neighborhood has transitioned to one of extreme wealth along the waterways of Spa Creek and Back Creek which flow into the Chesapeake Bay, yet 90% of the students that attend the Eastport Elementary School qualify for free lunches.

With all of the wealth in our community, we also see the extreme poverty and well as high crime that is often associated with inner-city locations. The majority of the low-income housing units are occupied by African-American and Hispanic families. While the wealthy families can boast about education rates that are significantly higher than the national average, 90% of the families living in public housing are single parents that have not graduated from high school. 50% of these single moms cannot read above a 3^rd grade level. Many are 3^rd and 4^th generation public housing residents that see no hope for their future.

Drugs and violence are all too common among the lower-income sections of Eastport. Gunshots and murders are all too common…mostly associated with gangs and drug turfs. Many turn to the drug trade because good jobs are difficult to find for an individual that has trouble reading or no high school diploma. Most of the work they find is in the low paying, part-time retail or service industry. If they do find jobs, many have trouble with transportation to and from work. Some jobs begin before public transit starts or ends after public transit has finished. The more determined individuals may find it necessary to walk 3-4 miles to and from work in the dark…walking in communities that are high crime areas.

I have been in several of the public housing units. One man was living in a place with no electricity, a folding chair in his living room, and a mattress on the floor in his bedroom. He owned 3 shirts and one pair of pants that he washed by hand in his sink.

Another home that also had no electricity had furniture that looked as if it had been left on the road after a rabid Rottweiler destroyed it. They had to leave their windows and doors open at night so they could cool the house down enough to sleep. They had no fear about being robbed in their high crime neighborhood because they had nothing anyone would want to steal.

Most that live safely in an idyllic neighborhood, just like we did just 3 years ago, may find it difficult to believe that there are places like Eastport that exist in America. We can talk all day long about who or what is at fault, but talk is not going to solve the problems. What we need is for followers of Jesus to start being the church rather than sitting inside the 4 walls that we call a church.

The church has been calling people to come to us so they can meet Jesus. Most people living in distressed and financially depressed areas are primarily focused on their basic physical and emotional needs. Eternal issues are the farthest thing from their minds. They could care less about their future when they don’t even know if they will survive the day.

Communities like Eastport need people to come and share the love of God with others. To let people of every color, race, creed, nationality, tribe, lifestyle, socioeconomic class, etc. know that they are highly valued by Jesus and by us. We need to mentor children, teens, and young adults. We need to provide GED training. We need to invest in these communities by taking a chance on hiring and training individuals for jobs: teaching skills that can be used to make a living. We need to teach financial skills. We need to offer parenting, family, and trauma counseling.

Jesus said that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love others. We’ve spent centuries and billions of dollars perfecting our corporate worship of God. Now we need to focus just as much time, energy, and dollars on the second part. The church needs to stop spending money on entertaining the ones that come and start reaching out to the done and nones. The worst thing that can happen to a body of believers is to build 4 walls that they can hide behind taking sanctuary from the real world that is outside.