Where Is My There?

Through reading a book Nehemiah, one can see a model that we should all follow regarding having and following a God given vision. Nehemiah, when hearing the need of his people, says in 1:4, “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” God called him to a specific task and he carried it out (to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem). He was placed in such a position in life that God had provided a way for that action to be carried out.

What Nehemiah experienced is what I hope to experience. I know that, just as Nehemiah, I have been shaped for a purpose. My experiences, abilities, and passions are not in vain, and I know God will use those to his advantage, I only seek to know what for. I want to see the artistic masterpiece that God is creating, but I’ve only seen portions of it.

As it is, I know I want to minister in an area of the United States that is not in the Bible Belt, likely somewhere up north between Seattle and New York (at least I narrowed it down to half of the US). I have now seen the need in New York for Gospel-centered churches, and I literally weep over that city. Scripture says of Jesus in Luke 19:41 “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.” I still have not been given my Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that I am supposed to bear my cross for.

Even though I have wept over New York City and mourn for its lack of faith in Christ, I’m not sure if I’m specifically called to that one city. I desperately desire a city that I too can weep over like Jesus and rebuild like Nehemiah. I pray that God will open my eyes to a place that I can marry, a city that I can love, build up, and devote my life to.