City

Finding God in the Everyday blog - A Devotional Blog for Women

The word prompt for today in the #Five Minute Friday Group is City.

What does this word conjure up for me? What do I think about when I think of a city?

Well truthfully, my heart sinks! I think of noise, crowds, traffic, fumes, dirt, people shoving, jostling, dirty streets. I think of getting lost, of feeling overwhelmed, of feeling like a country bumkin who doesn’t know the rules of the city amidst the city-slickers who know and play by the rules!

It is the feeling of inadequacy and of not fitting in which the city brings out in me. Although thinking of this is a bit like life in general really, we all want to “fit in” to belong; we want to ‘be part of’ what is going on, no-one wants to feel alone and vulnerable, unseen, unnoticed, unimportant.

So city life or country life – same human needs, same human desires, same basic need for connection.

I’m a country bumkin, but I still need human connection, I still need that touch of someone understanding; someone seeing me, hearing me and just as importantly I need to be that ‘someone’ to another person who crosses my way today; just to sit with them, stand with them and let them known that they are seen, that they are important.

So many people with similar stories desperately needed more than the help that we were prepared to give. What they wanted even more, however, was for someone, anyone, even a stranger who was still trying to learn their language, to sit for a while, or just stand with them and let them share theirs stories. I perhaps should have known this, but I was amazed to see the power of human presence. In my pride, I thought that I knew exactly what these people needed, but I would never have thought to put conversation or human connection on my list. Once again, I was profoundly humbled.

Nik Ripken, The Insanity of God, Pg 86

Published by Finding God in the Everyday blog - A Devotional Blog for Women

Hi, I'm Fiona, I live in the North West Highlands of Scotland and am passionate about women's ministry and helping women find God in their every day lives, finding the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary.

13 thoughts on “City”

  2. I don’t fit into urban places,
    and in the small town don’t do good;
    it’s the bush where my heart’s grace is
    for it’s there I’m understood
    with tattered felt upon my swede
    and shorts that are nice and loose;
    hard-callused feet and there’s no need
    for a costly pair of shoes.
    But take this to the village green
    or even worse, a city square,
    and the drongos get quite mean
    and what the say’s not quite fair,
    and fisticuffs that end the tale
    give me a night well-spent in gaol.

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  3. Fiona, I grew up in the city and haven’t lived there in 42 years. I am amazed at how overwhelming I now find the city. You are right in your observation – I crave connection but much prefer the one on one these days 🙂

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  4. You nailed this need we all carry—it’s amazing what an impact our place of living has on our way of connecting. And, yes, I know that feeling of not knowing how to “be” in the city, too. Thank you so much for this insightful post, Fiona.

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  5. My first thoughts on your post: It’s a curse and a blessing — technology, depending on how we use it, but for me a blessing because it provides a way of connecting — as understood by the speaker in the quote. (Great thoughts in that quote!) Whether we’re in the city or the country, we can be isolated — and especially these days with the craziness in the world — and what seems almost to be a purposeful disconnecting. These blogs, and even social media for many, are a way of staying connected — of being heard — a vital thing for humans.

    I’m with you about the city. I can’t say I avoid it, really — but rarely have a need for that excitement any more. I’m glad to live within driving distance, but feel much safer and more content living in the middle of woods and fields and farmer neighbors whose cows get in my yard sometimes. Our worst intruders.

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