Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins

and will raise up the age-old foundations;

you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,

Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

Isaiah 58:12

God is interested in R&R. Rest and relaxation yes! After all, God is the one who gave the gift of Sabbath rest for His people. But God is also interested in another kind of R&R—Repair and Restoration.

Isaiah 58 is clear—God is more interested in a community of people living rightly by treating workers fairly, working for justice, providing for the poor and hungry—than He is in seeing a group of people engage in religious activity, such as fasting. Ouch.

Rather, our practices of our faith are meant to produce in us a certain way of living, powered by God’s grace.  We reach out with tangible forgiveness and freedom because we have been truly set free and forgiven by Christ.  And, because we believe that God is With and For our City, we work to accomplish His mission of restoration where we live.

Isaiah 58 ends with a beautiful renaming of God’s people:  Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.  

Have you ever been back to your hometown, for instance, and visited a place that you knew as a child to be abandoned, destroyed, or dilapidated? Then, when you visited years later, you saw it bustling with life, with restored streets and buildings? Note: have you ever seen this done in a way that DID NOT cast out long-time residents, but included and honored the history there? THAT image is what the prophet Isaiah is saying to God’s people. That is our calling. To be ambassadors for our cities, seeing God’s beauty and restoration reach into every pocket of our communities.

As you consider these words, what pockets of your community need beauty and restoration?  What could you do, and what could we do together?

May it be said of us as a community of followers of Jesus—that we are the Repairers and Restorers!

Grace and peace,

David