For some reason, I noticed that when I left the "older" residential area (nearer the center of town) and entered the "newer" neighborhood, something was missing!
The sidewalks were gone!
It made me start thinking about sidewalks! (I guess that says something about how my brain can be easily distracted).
When I was growing up in Austin, there were sidewalks everywhere. A person could walk.....or ride a bicycle....or push a baby stroller almost anywhere without having to get on a city street.
I learned how to ride a bicycle.....on a sidewalk!
I learned how to roller skate.....on a sidewalk!
I learned how to skateboard.....on a sidewalk!
I drew hopscotch squares with chalk....on a sidewalk!
I went trick-or-treating.....along a sidewalk!
The sidewalks were what tied the neighborhoods together. Neighbors visited neighbors...along the sidewalks.
If you drive through any new housing development today, you won't see any sidewalks! Most people don't even know their next-door neighbors' name.
If Peter, Paul and Mary were still writing and singing folk songs today, I'm sure they would be inspired to write a song titled, "Where Have All the Sidewalks Gone?"
We live in a new day....where the solid, foundational connections that held us together as a neighborhood, and a society...are no longer there! The absence of sidewalks has disjointed us as neighbors. It has disjointed us as a society! There was a kind of "connectivity" about concrete.
I was just thinkin'...........are we losing the sidewalks of our churches?
Is the connectivity among members slowly disintegrating? Are we losing those solid, foundational, concrete paths of doctrine and belief?
Maybe we ought to start repairing the "sidewalks"! Maybe we ought to even build some new ones into our communities!
Tommy
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