First Presbyterian Church Fort Dodge

This last weekend, I became a true Iowan. I had the privilege of attending my first Iowa football game. It was a beautiful day for a game. Too bad the score wasn’t beautiful. Iowa just couldn’t get into the end no matter how hard they tried. And once they did, the refs didn’t count it!

Now before all the ISU and UNI fans stop reading this, let me say that a church member invited me to the game and we had a blast. But my loyalties aren’t set. I’ll happily be swayed by any ISU and UNI fans with tickets…

As if the weekend weren’t eventful enough already, Sara, the kids, and I moved into our new home in town. Emptying out our current home, I took one final trip of the moving day on Monday night. I had come back to get the cats and some remaining items. Turning off the lights and locking the door, I had to pause and consider all that happened in the last seven years on 23^rd Street.

The places where we live transform us. God uses our homes, our workplaces, our towns, and our culture to shape us.

Maybe that’s why God tells the Israelites to seek the welfare of the city to which they’ve been sent. God is at work in Fort Dodge. God is at work in your job – the cornfield, the classroom, the office, the car in the commute, the coffee shop. True, God is everywhere, but is also somehow present in particular places.

So God has placed you in a particular place, in a particular time, with particular skills to participate in his mission. How has God used your context to shape you? How has God used you to shape your context?

Blessings,

Austin D. Hill