Rise From the Ashes

Now that I've been a Detroiter for a few weeks, I thought I'd list some of my favorite things about my new city.

1. The city roads are flat and organized as a grid which makes things very convenient if you get lost once (or twice or three times . . . in one day . . . hypothetically speaking, of course). Coming from Pittsburgh, this is a very novel idea.

2. TCBY is here! I have missed this delicacy since it left Pittsburgh many years ago. Several times, I considered driving on the PA turnpike to Breezewood to get some at one of the rest stops. Who knew I should have driven west, not east?

3. The weather reports here are very creative. My first full day in Detroit the weatherman said that the next morning would be "bitter." Then the temperature would drop to "brutal" until it plummetted to "frigid" before we went to bed. I laughed. Then I woke up the next day to find out he wasn't kidding.

Maybe it's just because I'm a nerd, but I wanted to find out some more history about my new city to have a better idea of from where we've come. I was fascinated by what I learned.

The city was originally founded as a fortress by the French during the French and Indian war. They thought it was a great defense as well as a transportation and communication center for their other cities, since they could utilize the Detroit River. The city eventually went to the British and then to America, but in the early part of the 19th century, a terrible fire destroyed nearly all of what was developed. The people decided to rebuild the city and represented the whole situation on their city flag (you can see it on the logo) and their city motto, "We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes."

As we've been praying for our city at church, God has led me to Nehemiah 4 and 12. I couldn't help but see the story as a picture of the spiritual warfare that is going on in my new home. Nehemiah's enemies actually taunted the Israelites rebuilding their wall by saying, "Do they actually think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap—and charred ones at that?” (Neh. 4.2) I feel like that's a lot of the same attack on the hearts of the people of Detroit. Hope is lost. Our good times are behind us. All that is left is remnants of the past.

Granted, I've only lived here two weeks, so I can hardly speak to the heartache and hurt that the people who have lived here all their lives are feeling. I feel a surge of faith and hope, however, when I read the story of Nehemiah. I look at the empty factories and charred stones of the city and I believe, like the city builders nearly 200 years ago that, "We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes." The better things we hope for, however, go far beyond the economy. I desire to see Detroit once again be raised up as a fortress in God's kingdom, a dwelling for His people where He will do a new thing.

Who knows. If this keeps up, maybe I'll even become a Lions fan?!? :-)