Why You Live Where You Live
Your address is not a coincidence.
Where you live — house, townhome, duplex, apartment, or dorm — is not ultimately a consequence of your budget, your stage of life, or your commute. You live where you live in these Cities because God has deliberately, sovereignly placed you here. The long series of events, decisions, and circumstances that led you here really did lead you here.
The God who made the world, and everything in it, as Paul preached at Mars Hill, “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26–27). At every stage of your life and at this very moment, God has chosen when (allotted periods) and where (boundaries of your dwelling place) you live. That means your current address is filled with spiritual and eternal purpose — and the primary purpose is already clear: that you would seek God.
That purpose is true of you, and it’s true of everyone else on your block, even those who seem hopelessly far from God now.
That They Should Seek God
Your address isn’t a coincidence, and your neighbor’s isn’t either. God has chosen their allotted periods and boundaries so that they too might seek him. And if your neighborhood is anything like ours in New Brighton, very few of them know that. In fact, they spend all their God-given weeks and years seeking just about everything except God.
Whether they’ve ever been to church or not, God has loudly revealed himself to them. “His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). They see all that he has made, and clothe themselves daily in his generosity, and yet they refuse to honor or even thank him. In other words, they miss the point entirely for where, when, and why they live: to seek him.
In the case of your neighbors, however, God has already shown them one remarkable mercy: they are your neighbors. They live within a short walk of a Spirit-filled, gospel-soaked, Christ-treasuring you. Billions of people around the world don’t have Christian neighbors, but your neighbors do. They live in the startling shadow of God’s love for you. They’re regularly confronted with the miracle of new creation: new love, joy, and peace; new patience, kindness, and goodness; new faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control — a new you.
God has sent you into this neighborhood to remind these neighbors why they live and where they’ll finally find life. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14).
God Does the Finding
As you step out to help your neighbors seek God, though, remember that you don’t have to do the hardest work. We plant our little seeds and water them the best we can, but if anything good grows on our block, it’s because God brought the growth. God lets us play a part in evangelism, but he’s the only one who can save. Earlier in the same chapter, Paul says,
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24–25)
He doesn’t need anything. He gives us life and breath and everything else we have without ever losing anything. He could’ve done everything we might do in the world without us. He could have made rocks sing (Luke 19:40). And yet he decided, being free to do whatever he pleases however he pleases, to save sinners through the mouths of saved sinners.
God makes our weak, unimpressive words the instruments of his salvation. He brings people out of eternal torment and into eternal joy through incredibly ordinary conversations — by the mailbox, over the lawnmower, beside the grill.
Nearer Than We Think
He chose where and when our neighbors live that they should seek God, verse 27, “and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.” No matter how far they might seem from God right now, he’s not far from them. If they were to turn from their sin and go looking for God, they wouldn’t have to go far at all. He’s shockingly, wonderfully near.
You do not have a home by accident. Your home is an invitation from God to seek God — and a commission from God to help others seek him with you.