Skip town.

We've all seen an abandoned house. The paints chipping, there's water stains, the grass takes over the yard and there is just an overall unkempt face to it. And if you have ever been in a house such as this one, there is a deafening silence to the space. The only word that to me really describes that sound and the feeling you get is death.

Wow this blog just turned slightly morbid, but I'm going to roll with it.

I wonder what goes through the mind of a person/family that decides to abandon their house. At what point does ones brain, heart and soul decide that it just isn't worth it anymore?

And look at the end result of their decision; a sadly empty box made of four walls and a roof.

I'll just be real honest here. I had a moment, or rather a couple of moments today where my thoughts reached a place where abandoning this mission, this town, this community, these people.... sounded relieving. Relieving in the sense that because abandonment feels like the only option, if I were to actually do that, there would come the familiar sigh of, "Ahhh... at least it's over, and there's nothing I can do about it now."

Houses are a lot of work to keep up. Sacrifices have to be made and time and energy needs to be poured into it so that it can not only function the way it needs to (i.e. the plumbing), but also that it can be a home. A warm place for the occupants to be themselves and live authentically. If anyone can testify to the truth of that, it's my mother. Maybe I'll have her guest blog on this one day. I think it would be a genuine read.

Now I know that if I were to just pick up and leave, the Davenport world would not be shaken. But I am apart of something bigger, and what I do has impact; maybe big, maybe small. And so skipping town.... would that cause a piece of that something that I am apart of to just....die?

Because as I said at the beginning, death is the only way I can describe the feeling of an abandoned house. Or really, an abandoned anything.

I mean, what if Jesus abandoned earth and beamed himself back up to heaven and said, "Forget it, I can't do this anymore."

We would be dead.

I'm going to leave it at that for now.