Revitalizing Communities

About 10 years ago, Bri and I felt that God was speaking this scripture to us:

“Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to dwell in.” 

~Isaiah 58:12

At the time this word stood out to us, we were both involved real estate, filling multiple roles between us – construction, real estate sales, appraisal…We really thought that we were being called to help revitalize literal neighborhoods.

It’s taken all of this time for us to understand this word and how it really applies to us. We didn’t hear Him incorrectly all those years ago. We just didn’t understand the word fully and we weren’t prepared yet to do what He had called us to do. He needed to do quite a bit of renovation and restoration in us personally before we were prepared to work outside of our own “home.”

“Those from among you shall build the old waste places…” – we’re two of those people called to help build. What we’ve been called to build is communities of PEOPLE, going through the renovating, restoring, revitalizing process together. As we do, generations will be raised with strong foundations.

We’ve been called as “Repairers of the Breach.” According to the Encarta Dictionary, “breach” can mean “failure to maintain something, estrangement, a breakdown in friendly relations, a hole in something that is caused by something else forcing its way through, a gap that results when somebody or something leaves.” There are a lot of families and a lot of individual lives in this position. We’ve been called to help people fix it through the love, presence and power of the Great Architect.

When we think of restoring streets to dwell in, it means creating a place where people feel they can really LIVE and have be a HOME to them. It’s a place of peace, security, joy, fulfillment, laughter – a place where memories are made and held dear, a place where people are NEIGHBORS, doing life together.

This process happens one house at a time. It may be that several houses nearby one another are worked on simultaneously, but the work required on each house is different, based on that house’s particular needs. House after house is renovated and eventually an entire community and, therefore generations, emerge revitalized.

This is what we’ve all been called to do TOGETHER. While God may have spoken this to our hearts years ago, it’s a call to each one of us to work together toward these changes. What will come forth from it is a community that people long to live in – one which is sought out to become a part of because it’s seen as being a place of great worth, a place where others want to grow up and raise their own families, a place where people can BELONG, and feel LOVED and ACCEPTED. It will be a place where it’s ok and expected that things will get messy, knowing that it’s all a part of the renovation process and that the end results in greater value being added to the current community.

We’re watching God divinely build community and all He asks of us is to take each next step that He shows us to take in the renovation process. Isn’t that all that God asks of each of us?