The word “family” means so many different things to so many different people. It can be overall positive, overall negative, it can be an up and down relationship, it can be easy, it can be hard, it can be comforting, or cold, friendly or scary. It can mean 2 people or 50 people, and can remind you of good things or obligations. It encompasses rebellious children and controlling parents.
After spending eight weeks reflecting on the fruits of the Spirit in my own life and in the operations of Love City, it culminates into the final of the nine fruits: Love. Love is hard to explain, one of my favorite movies of all time is Interstellar. In it the protagonists, played by Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, face a decision of where to go.
For the past 8 years I have lived close enough to the school that I can walk. That means I am one of the ones that is able to walk over and help shovel the school parking lot after snow storms. This position has created many fond memories over the years of working shoveling with a small group of us, going inside to warm up with hot chocolate and muffins, talking to neighbors as they walk past on the street, helping people get their cars unstuck from the plow piles.
Shalom. Used as a common greeting in the Hebrew language, it means peace. One of the first three fruits that are named in Galatians 5:22. It is something that we have been very intentional about preserving at Love City this year going into 2026. A peace with those around us, and a peace maintained within ourselves.
Other than Kindness, Self-Control may be the most unintentionally talked about fruit of the Spirit at every school across the world. Schools are brimming with children full of energy, bouncing off the walls and one another, causing accidental and purposeful injuries to peers along the way. While it may seem to be primarily an issue of adolescence, it is one that persists into adulthood, but presents itself differently.
In 1978 American broadcaster Paul Harvey gave a speech to a Future Farmers of America Convention. It is a speech that has gone on to be known through different avenues, perhaps most recently as it was used in a marketing campaign for Dodge Ram trucks in 2013. The speech is titled “So God made a Farmer”.
Good is an impossible concept to outline because it is conditional. The very nature of the concept of goodness is not contained in a guidebook. We understand what it means to be patient and kind, we have solid ideas of what joy and Love look like, but goodness can be elusive. One person’s good may be another’s bad, one person’s right, another's wrong.
Life is full of distractions. Colors, sounds, touches, emotions, constant stimulus that our brains are constantly processing and interpreting. All of these external stimuli are what goes into building the reality around us. All the tangible inputs that create the world around us. But there is also an unseen world. One that everybody has experienced at some point or another, whether through a moment where everything just seems more clear, more vibrant, where everything is just right.
Kindness is not simply being nice and friendly. It is taking action, it is doing. Kindness without action is nothing. Without action, Kindness has no way of affecting others, no way of making them feel Loved, no way of connecting people. More than any of the other fruits, Kindness naturally creates relationships, it births community.
Sometimes I like to revisit the fruits of the Spirit and see if I am reflecting them well in my life or if there is an adjustment that needs to be made. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control. These traits all fit together and flow into one another in some way, but they also can seem to be elusive to reflect all at the same time.
Growing up in church I was always taught that a covenant was like a contract. But that isn’t true, a contract is a conditional agreement made within a timeframe. If one party breaks their agreed terms then the contract can be voided and the other party released of their duties. A covenant on the other hand is unconditional, eternal.
I got the opportunity to get away for a few weeks this month. One of the things that was on my mind a lot over that time was the practice of prayer. It is a practice that for me has always been a pillar that new growth comes from, and also the first practice to fall when my Spirit feels down. It is a practice that means something a little different to everybody.
If you have been to Love City before you may have seen an old bus, painted blue with graffiti all over it saying Love City. We referred to this as the Love bus and have had it since the early days of Love City. It had 5 rows of seats and when in use would be packed to the brim with team members and all types of equipment. It would be used to go give out food, provide our neighbors rides, and shuttle team members and supplies to and from Westonia for events and camps.
Last week, our 1st-3rd graders joined us over at the greenhouse. They took a tour of the plants and critters that call it home. They learned about the different stages that different plants were in and the conditions those plants like to survive. And they had an absolute blast getting their hands dirty and planting some garlic. They got to see a vibrant garden with greenery and vegetables everywhere, brilliant flowers and pollinators galore, but the garden did not always look that way.
As we begin to reflect on the past 10 years over these next couple of months I thought it would be good to cover where some of our team was 10 years ago. If you have followed Love City for a while you may be familiar with my story. In 2015 I was in a church group and had been assigned the task of finding a non-profit that could accommodate a large number of high school students to volunteer.
I got a gift a few weekends ago. A vase with a net on top containing a parsley plant. I accepted with feigned enthusiasm. But then they told me to look closer, a small caterpillar crawling around, munching on the leaves: a swallowtail caterpillar. It was a gift intended for the kids at the school. I took it into school with me that Monday and gave it to our Pre-school class to care for.
Saint John the Baptist Church Building on 26th Street was originally built as Grace Lutheran Church in the late 1890s. The most recent operating congregation in the building was a small group of breakaway Catholics who would have traditional Latin Mass. In 2019 Love City owned and was renting out the rectory next door, and Shawn had gone down to check on that building one day.
