Tuesday Trivia at Mother’s
Peninsula Grill (just the
guys). Taco Night at Señor
Chile’s (just the girls).
Backyard hibachi. Front yard
sprinkler party. Post-bedtime
Game Night. World War II
Book Club. Super Bowl parties.
Countless unplanned play dates.
Emergency bike repairs. “Ice
Cream Truck Alert” text threads.
Chili cookoffs. Baby Showers.
Baby Sprinkles. White Elephant
Gift Exchanges (complete with
year-over-year repeat gifts).
Borrowing tools. Borrowing(?)
a cup of sugar. Foam machines
& inflatables. SOS calls about
home repair. Building projects.
Pregnancy advice text threads.
Coffee runs. Meal deliveries.
What do all these things have in common? They’re examples of what life in our little neighborhood cluster has looked like over the past four years. It didn’t always look like this, but it’s built over time into something … beautiful. My wife and I feel so honored to have been invited into (or sometimes elbowed our way into) a relationship with the fantastic people who have the misfortune of living within walking distance of our house. Do these events incorporate every house on the block? Of course not. I’ll admit I don’t even know the first names of plenty of people we live ridiculously close to - despite seeing them everyday.
But casual hellos while taking out the trash have sometimes resulted in a phone number exchange. And a moving truck has often elicited a welcoming fist bump. And my feral children make enough noise to summon every other child in the zip code (it seems) to our front yard on a regular basis.
And here’s what I want you to know: each of these deepening connections has made our life genuinely richer. We consider these folks to be real friends, and they’re a big part of how we’re staying sane (and how our boys are staying un-hospitalized) in this stage of life.
Now to be clear - only one or two of the 20+ adults (I lost track of the kid count) have a relationship with Jesus. Some have even made it clear that they never want us (or our children) to speak about our faith around them. Fair enough. Others have a casual openness to our “odd” way of living, and we’re pretty sure they’ve got a Hixson-less group text just to document the hilariouslysheltered stories Lauren and I tell about our life growing up (let’s just say our college experience was very different than theirs).
But being “Good News Hixson People” near the Village Inn in Arnold, MD isn’t about coercing conversions. It’s not about being sleeper agents who feign friendship to hit ‘em with a Jesus juke.
It turns out, we actually like these people! We find them helpful, encouraging, insightful, inspiring, warm and thoughtful. We’re getting something from these friendships, not just biding our time ‘til we can get them on team Jesus.
To summarize it, I guess I’d just say that they’re not a project - they’re people we genuinely love.
But as I said the other day to a couple of the guys (over a burger at The Point) - I’m definitely not ambivalent about whether or not they follow Jesus. I have skin in the game, and given the opportunity I’m gonna give ‘em my best pitch (it hasn’t worked yet).
In the meantime, we’re happy to pick up your kids from school (to return the favor), and swap out that broken light switch (100% code compliant, don’t worry), and we’re definitely gonna be asking for AA batteries right at bedtime again because… well, life.
Evangelism is showing and sharing the good news of Jesus that others might live - and those others are people just like us. And I firmly believe that all people need genuine relationships of all kinds if they’re going to keep their head above water in the hustle of life and the monotony of everyday existence.
We’re glad to have our neighbors - their help and their friendship. We’re glad to be their neighbors. I hope they’re glad to have us too. Maybe someday some of them will also be glad to have a relationship with Jesus.
In the meantime - The Ice Cream Truck is one street away! STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND GET TO THE CUL-DE-SAC!
What do all these things have in common? They’re examples of what life in our little neighborhood cluster has looked like over the past four years. It didn’t always look like this, but it’s built over time into something … beautiful. My wife and I feel so honored to have been invited into (or sometimes elbowed our way into) a relationship with the fantastic people who have the misfortune of living within walking distance of our house. Do these events incorporate every house on the block? Of course not. I’ll admit I don’t even know the first names of plenty of people we live ridiculously close to - despite seeing them everyday.
But casual hellos while taking out the trash have sometimes resulted in a phone number exchange. And a moving truck has often elicited a welcoming fist bump. And my feral children make enough noise to summon every other child in the zip code (it seems) to our front yard on a regular basis.
And here’s what I want you to know: each of these deepening connections has made our life genuinely richer. We consider these folks to be real friends, and they’re a big part of how we’re staying sane (and how our boys are staying un-hospitalized) in this stage of life.
Now to be clear - only one or two of the 20+ adults (I lost track of the kid count) have a relationship with Jesus. Some have even made it clear that they never want us (or our children) to speak about our faith around them. Fair enough. Others have a casual openness to our “odd” way of living, and we’re pretty sure they’ve got a Hixson-less group text just to document the hilariouslysheltered stories Lauren and I tell about our life growing up (let’s just say our college experience was very different than theirs).
But being “Good News Hixson People” near the Village Inn in Arnold, MD isn’t about coercing conversions. It’s not about being sleeper agents who feign friendship to hit ‘em with a Jesus juke.
It turns out, we actually like these people! We find them helpful, encouraging, insightful, inspiring, warm and thoughtful. We’re getting something from these friendships, not just biding our time ‘til we can get them on team Jesus.
To summarize it, I guess I’d just say that they’re not a project - they’re people we genuinely love.
But as I said the other day to a couple of the guys (over a burger at The Point) - I’m definitely not ambivalent about whether or not they follow Jesus. I have skin in the game, and given the opportunity I’m gonna give ‘em my best pitch (it hasn’t worked yet).
In the meantime, we’re happy to pick up your kids from school (to return the favor), and swap out that broken light switch (100% code compliant, don’t worry), and we’re definitely gonna be asking for AA batteries right at bedtime again because… well, life.
Evangelism is showing and sharing the good news of Jesus that others might live - and those others are people just like us. And I firmly believe that all people need genuine relationships of all kinds if they’re going to keep their head above water in the hustle of life and the monotony of everyday existence.
We’re glad to have our neighbors - their help and their friendship. We’re glad to be their neighbors. I hope they’re glad to have us too. Maybe someday some of them will also be glad to have a relationship with Jesus.
In the meantime - The Ice Cream Truck is one street away! STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND GET TO THE CUL-DE-SAC!