Greenlake and friends

I live in Seattle. I have been here for a while now but just when I think I know this city I discover something new that I love. This is what happened last summer when I moved just a few minutes up the road from where I had been living. I had new and fun places to walk to and I found that it was only a 10 minute walk to Greenlake. Greenlake is a beautiful park with, yes you guessed it, a lake!

Over the past year I have spent many hours at Greenlake. It is nice to walk around the lake, if I am hanging out with any kids the playground is fun, and it is wonderful to people watch!

Last week I went there with my friends Amanda and Ashley. We walked past the basket ball courts which were alive and sweaty with the enthusiastic ball game. We avoided walking over any of the field that the baseball game was on, and we marveled at the circus tricks being taught and practiced on the other side of the grass. It was the place to be and everyone was!!! The sunny weather encouraged the whole city outside.

We sat on the steps which go down into the shallow swimming area, and looked out into the lake. Some swimmers were deep in the water, people were throwing themselves off of the diving boards on the floating platform. Beyond that there lake was scattered with yellow and blue peddle-o's, a few canoes and even a windsurfer! We sat and watched the kids playing and laughing in the water. We didn't say much to each other but we were all smiling.

Then we moved on and sat on the grass around the outside of the lake, and found a spot to sit and catch some sun. We watched as people young and old whizzed by on their bikes, mums ran with babies in jogging strollers, people rollerbladed (some good, others who seemed to have taken their lives in their hands when they put the skates on!) We saw many people walking dogs, and a few even pushing their dogs in dog strollers - no, I'm not kidding. So many people. So many lives.

I confess that sometimes I get overwhelmed by numbers. The number of people in this city who don't know who Jesus is. The number of people who have rejected Him. The number of people who are actively following other religions, or who are living the new age lifestyle. Most of all I get overwhelmed by the number of people living in this city and have no interest in a relationship with God, people that just don't care.

How do we even begin to reach them? I believe that God has a plan for this city, just like every other and I pray that he continues to develop our passion for Seattle and the people here. That he continues to gives us creative ideas for reaching people and sharing who He really is.

The thing about Seattle is that so many people are hurting, I guess it is like that everywhere, but I know it is true for Seattle. I pray each day for more of God's heart for this city.